Always
by Lady.of.Victory.Rising
Summary: In "I'm OK, You're OK" what if Doyle had waited a little longer to come see Paris? With Paris there to support her, Rory doesn't take Logan back. Fast forward to The Real Paul Anka. With no Logan in the way, will Rory and Jess have a chance? AU Lit
1. Exodus

**Title**- Always  
**Author**- Kàra, since apparently FFn thinks my penname, within the contents of a document, is a link or something as it keeps deleting it (freaks!)  
**Summary**- In "I'm OK, You're OK" what if Doyle had waited a little longer to come see Paris? With Paris there to support her, Rory doesn't take Logan back. Fast forward to The Real Paul Anka. With no Logan in the way, will Rory and Jess get a chance to really work things out?  
**Rating**- Strictly PG-13 for now, may go up later

**A/N**- I'm very much flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants on this fic. The Crying Game was all written before I even began posting, but this is spur-of-the-moment, so updates won't necessarily be nice and frequent. I always told myself that I would never let myself be one of those writers who goes months or (god forbid!) years between updates, but feedback is addicting and I couldn't wait to post. And hey, I got to use an obscure word in the very first sentence! Jess would be proud of me...

* * *

1. Exodus

* * *

The loud rapping of knuckles on the door shocked the two girls on the sofa out of their misandry and into action. "Did we actually order that pizza?" Paris asked suspiciously.

Rory shrugged, not noticing or sharing her friend's concern. "I thought it was just discussed," she said, sitting up slightly.

"Who is it?" Paris called.

"It's Logan," came the muffled reply.

"I don't want to talk to him!" Rory responded, feeling slightly panicked. It wasn't that she didn't still _care_ about Logan, but the honest truth was, something was broken between them and she knew it. If she spoke to him face-to-face, she was afraid his innate charm and endearing ability to be sincere when he wanted might make her lose all sense; it had happened before, when he would smile at her and she would paste on a smile back because she didn't want to look at the cracks in their foundations. She was tired of a weak foundation, she was sick of having someone who seemed to make himself into who he thought she wanted him to be and repeatedly slipping up only to come crawling back and begging for forgiveness because she was familiar and comforting.

Luckily, tonight she had her friend to back her up. Paris rose to her feet, casting her a comforting look- well, as close to comforting as Paris could conceivably get. "I've got this," she assured her. The blonde strode to the door and pulled it open a crack, leaving the chain on. "Well, if it isn't New Haven's favorite whorehound," she said snidely.

"Is Rory here?"

"Yes."

"Can I talk to her?"

Paris gave him a withering stare (at her mind's use of that particular phrase, Rory's memory suddenly turned up images of a very different ex-boyfriend for no reason that she could understand... but she shook that aside to pay attention to the conversation) and said, "No. You can talk to me." She opened the door wide. "What do you want to talk about? Life? Love? Common symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases?"

"Rory-" Logan began, looking past the blonde to where Rory retained her position on the sofa. "Five minutes, please!"

But Paris, typically, appeared to have no intention of backing down. "You know, there's a few things I've always wanted to say to you, but out of respect for my friend Rory here, I've refrained. However, the circumstances seem to have changed!"

"You don't know what you're talking about, Paris," Logan said, brushing her off. Rory felt a flare of anger at his immediate dismissal of her friend's opinion. Didn't he get that, though Paris certainly didn't have any direct influence on their relationship, her friends mattered to her? She didn't want to see their input ignored by someone who claimed to love her! (Again, her mind suddenly wandered to the only one of her boyfriends who had been able to easily put up with Paris, even get along with her to some extent... but again she pushed him out of her mind. Now was not the time to dwell on heart-breakers...)

Paris and Logan were still verbally sparring when she came out of her reverie. "...Nothing but a two-bit, spoiled, waste of a trust fund," Paris was saying. "You offer nothing to women or the world in general. If you were to disappear from the face of the earth tomorrow, the only person that would miss you is your Porsche dealer!"

"You wanna chime in here?" Logan asked a little desperately, glancing at Rory.

She gave him a disinterested look. "Nope, I think Paris has it pretty well covered."

"Okay, that's it!" he exclaimed, blue-grey eyes flashing angrily, physically shoving Paris out of his way and ignoring her exclamation of protest. "Rory, I just need sixty seconds!"

"Go away, Logan," Rory said tiredly. Almost speaking over her, Paris followed up with an indignant cry of, "No one invited you in! Get out right now before I go all Bonaduce on your ass!"

Logan strode up to Rory, and for a moment she felt an unnerving flash of fear that he might push her around as he had her friend. "I'm not going away, I'm not going anywhere. We're going to talk."

"I don't _want_ to talk to you, Logan!"

"Please, Ace, I love you, I just want a chance to make it up to you!"

Paris glared from her place by the doorway. "You cheated on her once. How can she be sure you wouldn't just do it again?"

He whipped around to shoot her a furious look. "Would you shut your mouth?" he exclaimed in frustration. "I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to _Rory_." For a moment, Rory was swayed by the fact that he had never used her name this many times in a conversation before, but immediately her anger returned when he turned back to her and said, "Please, come home."

"Your apartment isn't _home_, Logan, it never was," she said snidely.

"Ror, I love you, okay? Please, just... I want another chance! You have to understand, in my mind, I really thought we were broken up!"

She stared at the floor, not wanting to meet his eyes because they were too familiar and too persuasive to her. Even furious and disenchanted with him as she was, there was no denying that the chemistry between them sometimes induced her to make rash decisions.

Logan, however, took her avoidance of eye contact as a sign of her resolve weakening. Trying to press his perceived advantage, he seized her shoulders, clamping down on her arms perhaps a little harder than he'd meant to as he said, "Rory, look at me!" He shook her slightly, trying to cajole her into meeting his gaze

Paris saw the beginnings of fear on her friend's face and flew across the intervening space to plant herself neatly at their side, arms crossed and a look that screamed 'homicidal rage' on her face. "Huntzberger, I am only telling you this once more: Get. Out. Of. Our. Apartment."

He didn't even bother to look at Paris, eyes fixed on the brunette. "I'm only going if Rory wants me to," he said quietly, removing one of his hands from her shoulder.

Rory didn't respond.

"Ace?" he asked hesitantly.

At last, she glanced up, looking him square in the eyes. "I don't love you anymore, Logan."

His other hand dropped away, clenching into a white-knuckled fist as if he'd been burned by her skin. Jaw tight, he nodded stoically, and there was a hardness in her eyes that she'd never seen there before. He took a few steps backwards away from her, then turned around and walked out of the apartment (she couldn't help but picture a shorter, dark-haired boy making practically the same set of motions almost two years ago... and again she had to push the thoughts away). Just before he disappeared into the night, Logan turned back. "Bye, Ace," he said, face betraying his pain. "I guess I'll see you around whenever."

She nodded.

The silence in the apartment was somewhat deafening. Rory glanced at Paris, who sighed. "I understand that, in a situation like this, ice cream is the preferred method of comfort," she said with a hint of a question in it. Rory nodded again, not really trusting her voice to be able to handle the lump in her throat just now.

"Just so you know," Paris continued. "I'm not hugging you."

Understanding that this was her friend's roundabout way of making sure she was alright, Rory smiled. "I didn't expect you to. Now, what do you say to some Rocky Road to go with the rest of the Chinese?"

Before Paris could respond, Doyle burst in, still wearing Rory's jacket. "What the hell is this door doing unlocked?!" he exclaimed.

"What are you doing here?" the stunned blonde demanded, expression switching from friendly concern to murderous instantly.

"I want to talk to you," the former editor said firmly, and Rory began to wonder if perhaps he had imbibed before returning to the apartment.

Paris crossed her arms. "I told you to go," she said, but there was already the tiniest bit of softening around her eyes, and Rory smiled to herself. Murmuring an excuse that neither party heard, she slipped out of the living room and into the bedroom she had recently reclaimed.

* * *

_Two Weeks Later..._

_

* * *

_Rory had been avoiding the apartment for the last few days, because the newly reunited Paris and Doyle were being quite frankly very sickening in their own way. She wouldn't have been particularly bothered by their amorous behavior if it weren't for the fact that she was freshly alone. It was fine, of course. She knew for certain that she had no more feelings for Logan anymore. How could she when he had no respect for her? But that didn't mean that she didn't miss having someone in her life.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to keep away from her place of residence forever, because there were some very creepy people in all-night cafes that Rory really didn't have much interest in meeting.

When she entered the apartment, she made a point of being extra-noisy when she gave the door the customary two kicks to loosen it. Thankfully, the apartment was quiet. There were a few open boxes of Thai takeout on the counter and a stack of mail next to it. Clearly, the couple hadn't bothered with sorting the mail or putting away their food before becoming engrossed in... _things_. With a sigh, she picked up the pile of envelopes and began flicking through it, setting all the mail addressed to Paris or Doyle back on the counter while keeping a few of the letters for herself.

One piece of mail, however, made her pause. Rory set the rest of the mail carefully on the counter and crossed the tiny apartment to sink down onto the sofa, staring at the flyer in her hands. It was an invitation to an open-house at a place called Truncheon Books in Philadelphia. Quickly, Rory put the pieces together- books, Philadelphia- and realized who the invitation was from before she even saw the neat little handwritten note in the margin beside the contact details.

_"Rory- _  
_Thought maybe you'd like to see the place. Hope you can make it._  
_-Jess"_

It was brief, trivial, and relatively uninformative, but she was disproportionately touched that he had taken the time to single out this one invite to put a personal note on it. A little smile threatened the corners of her mouth as she scanned the information provided on the oversized postcard. The open-house was this upcoming Saturday. She didn't have any plans, as far as she was aware.

Jess had been on her mind a lot lately. Well, he had always been on her mind more frequently than what she guessed to be normal for an ex-boyfriend, but over the last few months she'd thought about him even more than usual. Seeing him back in November had been a shock, to say the least. She had been startled to find that she was still hugely attracted to him... maybe even more so than before, given his new, calmer demeanor. He wore maturity well.

A part of her acknowledged that she had never really felt like their story was over, like there was still something else coming for them. She had a suspicion that, whatever that next chapter held, closure or friendship or... well, she could envision another possibility, but she didn't really want to consider that just now. She didn't even know if he still thought of her that way, let alone actually wanting to give them another try. More likely this was just an overture of friendship, his attempt to let the past go and get back on friendly terms (a good idea, considering they were soon to be connected through marriage). But whatever it was that the invitation meant, she knew that the next stage in their tumultuous history would begin if she decided to accept the invitation.

And all at once, it hit her that despite her mind trying to rationalize the situation, she had already made the decision: she was going to Philadelphia.

Rory smiled, and for the first time in months (no, if she was honest with herself, it was the first time in years) it felt really right on her face.

* * *

**A/N2-** I don't know when I'll update this. I don't have a great deal of time for writing until Easter holiday starts next week. However, the next chapter of The Crying Game will be posted late this afternoon (since I now realize it's 1:30 in the morning and I've been writing since midnight trying to get this chapter done in one sitting... Reward my efforts, please? You know what to do...)


	2. Effecting Change

A/N- Originally, this was going to be the redone Truncheon Scene. However, I realized that I wanted to expound a little more on how the AU Event has affected Rory and how it has impacted her outlook. I wanted to show how taking Logan out of her life might affect the time she spent in Stars Hollow in "I'm Okay, We're Okay." Therefore, the following scenes take place during the intervening weeks between the first and second scenes of last chapter, probably within a couple of days of the breakup while Rory's still feeling mighty pissed at Logan.

* * *

2. Effecting Change

* * *

"Ugh, I can't believe her!" Rory raged as she slammed into the Crap Shack. Modulating her voice to a grating, high-pitched squawk, she screeched, "'_Oh Rory dear, that Huntzberger boy was so nice and such a very good match for you! How could you have broken up with him? He was so perfect and so handsome and so very wealthy!'_ I can't believe her! What say does she have in who I chose to date?"

"None whatsoever!" Lorelai sympathized enthusiastically. "I'm proud of you, kid. You're starting to sound like me."

Rory looked momentarily torn between horror and pride. She settled for a neutral expression of discontent, and said in a calmer tone, "It's not like she knows the first thing about what Logan's actually like, anyway."

Lorelai shook her head. "No, she doesn't."

"I mean, he cheated on me- with an entire bridal party!" Rory grumbled, plopping down onto the sofa. "_He_ cheated on _me_, after I changed so much to be what I thought he wanted. One remark about how my hobbies are boring and suddenly I barely read anymore and just go out partying all the time. He mentions that my clothes are kind of plain and next thing I know I'm asking Grandma to buy me a whole new wardro--"

Suddenly she broke off, staring down at herself. "Oh my god," she said in a shocked whisper. "I'm wearing the clothes she bought me right now! Oh my god! What was I thinking?"

"I dunno, kiddo," Lorelai responded, taking a seat next to her. "I mean, don't get me wrong, you look good in anything..." She trailed away, reconsidering. "Well, almost anything. That red sweater three Christmases ago was questionable."

"Hey! I liked that sweater!"

"It sure didn't like you."

"Your point?"

"My point is, yeah, you can pull off that 'my mother circa 1970' look and be fabulous in it, but that doesn't mean it suits you."

Rory looked sadly at her hands, twisting unsettlingly in her lap. "A lot of the things in my life lately haven't suited me," she said sadly. Then her face took on a look of determination. "Logan was the first thing to go. Next is the wardrobe!" She leapt to her feet and ran towards the kitchen.

Lorelai stood up and followed her cautiously. "Babe, what are you doing?"

"Cleaning out my closet!"

"Isn't it a little late for some spontaneous spring cleaning?"

"It's only ten o'clock, and it's a Friday. Besides, we've done weirder things at stranger hours. Grab a couple of trash bags and help me!" Rory called from her bedroom. After a moment's hesitation, Lorelai dove in after her and they spent many happy minutes sorting through her closet. A majority of her clothes were at the apartment she shared with Paris, but somehow a large amount of the outfits Emily had purchased for her had found their way to the Crap Shack and were taking up space in Rory's closet.

About a half an hour later, they were staring at three chock-full black trash bags and a small pile of assorted items lying on the bed. Lorelai moved to shove a white scarf into the last bags, but Rory lunged for it. "Wait, no, I like that! We're only getting rid of the dowdy stuff, remember?"

"Dowdy, ha! Perfect word to describe half that stuff!"

Rory glared good-naturedly at her. "I choose not to respond to that. I think we're just about done here."

Lorelai nodded. "So it would seem, David."

"David?"

"Beckham. The neat freak to beat all neat freaks. He color-coordinates his fridge and only vacuums in straight lines."

"I see. It is both fascinating and highly disturbing that you know that."

"What can I say? I've fully subscribed to this country's voyeuristic tendencies."

"Ooh, big words."

Lorelai looked at her daughter with concern. "Rory... are you sure you're okay? This impulsive closet-cleaning thing seems a little..."

"Not me?"

"Yeah."

Rory shrugged. "It's just, I'm really mad, Mom. I've really screwed up this last year, and a big chunk of that was because of Logan. I was in love with him, I really was, but he wasn't good for me, and I'm starting to see that. I just want to clear his influences out of my life and try and start fresh."

Lorelai duly noted the past tense when referring to her feelings for Logan. "You know that if you need to talk, I'm here."

"I know." After a long pause, "Mom? Is it weird that I don't... miss him?" At Lorelai's startled look, Rory said, "I miss the relationship. I miss that a lot, and it hurts. A lot. But Logan personally I don't miss the way I think I should. It's not like there's some gaping hole in my chest where he used to be. I'm just... lonely."

Lorelai put a hand gently on her daughter's shoulder. "I can't answer that," she said. "But I can tell you this: he betrayed you, Sweetie. He threw away all the trust you put in him at the drop of a hat. That's a hard thing to come to terms with so don't let it fester, okay?"

"I won't. I just need a little time to process, I think."

Rory turned away and peered into the freshly thinned closet. With the sudden freeness of space, she spotted a large, familiar cardboard box stashed behind her shoe tree. Hauling it out, she couldn't help but laugh. "The Dean Box?" she asked. "We still have that?"

"Yep. I stuffed it in your closet years ago and never remembered to take it out," Lorelai said, making a face at the dust-covered receptacle.

Rory pulled open the flaps and glanced inside. Seeing that there was nothing with more than sentimental value, she replaced the cover and sad, "I think I'll take this upstairs and store it in the attic. The rest of this--" She swept her free hand around to indicate the bags of rejected 'Emily clothing'. "--is going to Goodwill first thing in the morning!"

Leaving her mother laughing hysterically at the idea of Emily Gilmore's idea of appropriate attire being hung on the $5 rack at a rummage shop, Rory hurried upstairs and, after a brief struggle with the ladder-equipped trapdoor to the attic, stashed the Dean Box away next to an antique lamp that she suspected had an interesting history involving Mrs. Kim and a Lorelai freak-out.

When she returned to her bedroom, brushing cobwebs from her hair, she found her mother sitting on the floor, half inside the closet, apparently struggling to retrieve something from the far back corner. After much grunting and flailing, Lorelai emerged triumphant, holding a much smaller box triumphantly in her hands. "I thought I saw more cardboard," she announced. Giving the box a closer look, she asked, "What is this?"

Curious, Rory took the item from her mother and understood her confusion. The diminutive size of the box belied its considerable weight. Rory recognized it immediately. "It's, um, the Jess Box," she responded quietly, sinking onto her bed.

"_Oh_." It was a loaded syllable, full of swift understanding and sympathy. Rory resisted the temptation to sigh. Her mother never took on that tone when the subject of her other ex-boyfriends came up. She didn't tiptoe this much even around the subject of Logan, and that was still fresh. In her defense, though, Lorelai had never even known about the Jess box.

After a long silence, Lorelai asked, "Do you want to open it?"

It had been almost a year since she had gone through this box. Rory nodded.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No. You can see it," Rory assured her.

"Okay." Lorelai hopped up onto the bed next to her, looking curiously over her shoulder.

Slowly, Rory pulled the lid off of the box and lifted out the topmost object inside. Seeing what it was, she couldn't help but smile.

"What's that?"

"It's my old copy of _Howl_," Rory explained. "Jess stole it the first night we met and put his notes in the margins."

"Mm, dirty!" Lorelai said with a smirk.

"It was not! They were some of the most incredible literary insights I've ever read. Look!" Rory opened the small volume to the first page and pointed out Jess' spiky hand in the margins. "He gave it back to me the next day with all this written in."

Lorelai took the book from her and flipped through the pages, studying the margin notes for a few seconds. Rory couldn't help but feel a momentary stab of jealousy as her mother's blue eyes took in the words Jess had penned there; no one but herself and Jess had ever seen those. Pushing the feeling aside, she reached into the box again and pulled out several more books, every one's margins filled with the same tiny, erratic writing. _Nicholas Nickleby_, _Animal Farm_, _Gods and Generals_, and two or three others emerged from behind the cardboard. Placing them on the duvet cover next to her with the intent to skim back through his notes later, Rory turned back to the box that had been made considerably lighter by their exodus.

The next item she pulled out was a little white stuffed bear. Again, a sad smile crossed her features.

"A teddy bear?" Lorelai asked. "Doesn't seem very... Jess-like."

"I won it at the Winter Carnival," Rory explained.

"I didn't think Jess went to that."

"He wound up going in the end. I worked my womanly wiles and convinced him," Rory said, not wanting to get into the full explanation of just how Jess had ended up spending a whole evening with herself and Dean.

"Ooh, 'womanly wiles.' I have taught you well, Spawn."

Rory grinned at her mother, hugging the bear to her chest. "I do learn best by example..."

"Low blow! Low blow!"

"That's what you get for calling me Spawn."

"Fun-wrecker!"

"Name-caller!"

"Yalie!"

"What? How is that an insu-- You know what, never mind. Truce?"

"Truce. What else you got in there?"

Rory looked into the box. "A pair of earplugs from that Distiller's concert, one of his cigarettes- I'm not sure when I got ahold of that- and..." She let out a short laugh. "Do you remember the Bid-a-Basket festival?"

"How could I forget? I had a quasi-date with Luke and you got shanghaied by Jess."

"I've got the silk flowers I used to decorate that basket in here."

Lorelai's eyebrows shot upwards. "Wow, if nothing else that's a tribute to your organizational skills that you even still have those."

Rory shrugged. Peering into the box, she spotted one last item, a forlorn little photograph resting at the bottom. She reached in and picked it up, realizing as she did so that it was a picture of Jess, the only photo of him she owned.

Lorelai may have been in the dark about much of her daughter's relationship with Jess Mariano (a fact she was only now realizing), but she was far from blind. It was impossible to miss the softening in Rory's eyes as she looked at the picture, and Lorelai knew her daughter too well to mistake it for mere nostalgia. "You loved him, didn't you?" she asked.

Rory nodded. "I did." She was silent for a beat, then she continued in a low voice, "It's a kind of connection I've never had with anyone. Jess was... he was something special." Not knowing how to respond, Lorelai just put her arm around Rory's shoulder and hugged her reassuringly.

A long silence ensued before Rory spoke again. "It's been three years. Is it normal to still think about him? A lot?"

"Every relationship is different. Every person is, too," Lorelai said carefully, regretting having found the box because of the effect the contents were having on her daughter. From almost the moment the box had come into her hands, the young woman had seemed sober with a kind of sad serenity that Lorelai couldn't recall seeing in her... aside from events involving Jess. It was a state that scared her a little, knowing that someone she had so little faith in had so much power to hurt her daughter, even now. The fact that she just nodded, rather than calling Lorelai out on her answer which was an obvious cop-out, was proof that she was deep in thought.

"I saw him this fall," Rory blurted out suddenly.

"What?! When?"

Rory pulled away from Lorelai's embrace and busied herself fiddling with the contents of her sock drawer. "He came to see me when I was living at Grandma and Grandpa's."

"Wow, kid, I never knew that. Let's never stop talking again, okay?" Rory made an affirmative noise, and Lorelai continued, "So... you saw Jess. What happened?"

"He wrote a book," Rory said off-handedly.

Lorelai stared. "What? Like, an actual _book_ book?"

"Yeah. The Subsect. I've got a copy if you want to read it. And he said he works at this independent publishing company in Philadelphia now."

Her mother laughed loudly. "Wait a minute. Jess Mariano- sarcastic, antisocial Jess Mariano- is living in the City of Brotherly Love?" she giggled.

"Yes, and if one Rocky joke passes your lips, so help me..." Rory let the threat trail away menacingly.

"Okay, I'll try not to mock. So, book, publishing, Philly. What else?"

Rory, who had looked over her shoulder at her mother during the previous exchange, turned her back again, compulsively refolding every pair of jeans in her drawer. "We didn't get much of a chance to talk. Logan hijacked us. But it was... weird."

"That goes without saying," Lorelai responded. "You haven't met each other on friendly terms since you were seventeen."

Choosing to ignore her mother's comment, Rory said, "He has really grown up, Mom. I think he's matured a lot more than I have, if the last year and a half are anything to go on."

Lorelai shrugged. "Everyone makes mistakes, kiddo," she reassured her. "What's important is what you learn from them." Rory nodded her agreement. "So, Logan interrupted your catching up?"

"Yep. We'd been planning to have dinner and talk, but Logan got back from Omaha early and he was in a really crappy mood and took it out on Jess. He demeaned his book and his work and tried to out-intellectualize him which anyone who knows anything would know is a bad idea because even Paris can't do that and she's a force of nature... and ugh, Logan was just _awful_. After a very uncomfortable fifteen minutes, Jess got fed up and left and I followed him and--" She broke off.

"And what? Don't leave me hanging here!" Lorelai urged.

"He kind of yelled at me. He asked what I was doing with my life and called me out on all the stupid stuff I'd been doing." Rory turned back again to face her mother, wearing a bemused smile. "Jess, of all people, was my wake-up call. He was the reason I came home and went back to Yale and... and everything!"

"Wow. Why am I only hearing about this now?" Lorelai asked, completely taken aback.

Rory shrugged nervously. "I wasn't sure you'd want to know. You've always been Taylor's co-captain on Team Death To Jess."

"Well, right now I'm feeling like the captain of Team People Who Owe Jess An Apology And Some Serious Ass-Kissing," Lorelai grumbled. "Wow, I never thought I'd say that. Quick, look for fiery horsemen!"

"I don't think the apocalypse is coming yet. Jess is a good guy. I always told you that."

Lorelai looked quizzically at her daughter. "So then, you guys are... what? Friends?"

Rory twisted her hands uncomfortably. "I guess so. The whole thing was very surreal. Jess reminded me of a time when I... liked who I am. Who I was becoming. I don't think lately I do." Glancing around her, she added, "Hence the closet cleaning. It's not everything, but..." She trailed off, apparently at a loss for a way to finish the sentiment.

"But it's symbolic."

After a brief silence during which she wondered where exactly these newly surfaced insecurities in her daughter had come from, Lorelai asked, "So, was his book any good?"

"Oh yeah. I read it three times already. It's so original, I've never read anything like it before. But I shouldn't be surprised; Jess always thought a little to the left of everybody else."

Lorelai nodded. "Hm. Maybe I'll read it, then. I never understood what was going on inside that kid's head."

"If you had, I think you'd have liked him a lot more," Rory said earnestly. "He's a lot like you."

"That's what scared me."

Rory nodded and stood up, picking up one of the black plastic bags on the floor. "Come on, help me take these to the front door!" she said before exiting the room and leaving Lorelai wondering just what it was that existed between her daughter and Stars Hollow's very own James Dean. Only now was she beginning to realize the full scope of the connection the two of them had shared and it left her wondering.

* * *

_A week later..._

_

* * *

_

"Dude, just send the stupid invite!" Chris Matherson exclaimed, irritation finally getting the best of him.

Jess Mariano looked up from his desk where he'd been sitting for the last ten minutes, tapping a pen against the desktop with one hand and his head resting against the other, staring at the piece of paper in front of him with enough concentration to light it on fire. "What?" he asked, sounding a little disoriented.

Rolling his eyes at his friend's distraction, Chris said, "You've been staring at that thing on and off for days. The rest of the invites got sent off weeks ago! Just send it if you're going to! If she doesn't come, whatever. If she does, she does. Just put the damn thing in the mail!"

Chris ducked to avoid the pen Jess sent flying his way.

"I don't know, it just seems out of the blue," Jess said. "We didn't see each other for a year and a half and then suddenly we're friends who make 3-hour trips to see each other? Not likely."

Chris groaned. "Jess, man, you're obsessing. Stop obsessing. Matthew, tell Jessica he needs to stop obsessing!"

"You need to stop obsessing!" came a muffled voice from the storage room at the back of the shop.

"See?" Chris prodded.

Jess shot him a good-natured death glare. "Alright, fine!" he grumbled. "Gimme the pen back." As an afterthought he added, "And my name's not Jessica."

"Whatever you say," Chris replied teasingly before disappearing into the storage room to unearth Matthew.

Jess looked back at the invitation. Neatly stamped on the front was Rory's new address (he was pleased to note that it was _not_ a ritzy upscale mansion anymore) which he had had to twist Luke's arm all but out of its socket to get. The back of the card detailed information about Truncheon. It looked just like every other invitation that had been sent out before this open house, and Jess wasn't sure he liked that. This wasn't just going out to some random person. It would go to Rory Gilmore, the girl he was still hung up on after three years apart. He didn't want it to be so cold and informal.

Finally, he scribbled a quick note in the margins. Nothing special, nothing meaningful, but at least it was personal. Then he jumped from his seat, hurried out of Truncheon, and ran the two blocks to the nearest post-box, depositing the invitation before he could lose his nerve. As it slid out of sight into the confines of the blue box, he let out a shaky breath. It was done. Now all he could do was wait and see.

* * *

**A/N2-** So there we are. There's going to be plenty of R/J interaction in the next chapter... and I may be convinced to post sooner if I get some high-quality feedback. You know what to do!


	3. Ignition

**A/N-** Aaaaand... here we are at Truncheon! Are you excited? Are you jumping out of your skin? I am! I really enjoyed writing this chapter, because I always wondered just what transpired from the moment that Jess gave Rory that "You're alone? *SWEET*!" look and the famous Stairwell Poet Debate with Matt and Chris and all the (disastrous) things that came afterwards, and now I had a chance to write it! I hope I did it justice!

Especially since, in the course of writing this, I discovered how incredibly difficult it is to write straight-up conversation. The Big Talks about Important Things? Those are easy. The chitchat, the idle conversation about nothing, or even about important things which aren't Big Emotional Issues... not so much. I had no clue what to touch on besides books/music/the past year and a half. I mean, when I'm talking to my friends, I'm going on about **String Theory** or **Olbers' Paradox** (look that up, btw, it's COOL) or rambling about how much **freshmen suck** and should all die or how **the elevator in our school is possibly the TARDIS' distant cousin** (review if you know what I'm talking about!). So even though I'm Rory's (much more perceptive, much less organized) mini-me, I have no clue what the two of them would talk about in just an average conversation.

* * *

3. Ignition

* * *

"Go have a beer, stop obsessing!" Jess ordered, biting the inside of his cheek to contain a grin as he watched his roommate/coworker twist his hands nervously. As he turned away from Matthew, a girl standing by the door caught his eye, and he stopped and stared.

Here she was. Rory. Not the chenille-clad doppelgänger he had been introduced to back in November but the real Rory. _His_ Rory. She was wearing a pair of khaki pants and a v-necked sky blue sweater that made her eyes look five times larger than usual. She looked like an adult version of the girl he had fallen for so long ago, and the sight of her left him just a little bit breathless. This was the first time he'd seen her in two years. November didn't count. That had been a pale imitation of her. This was his Rory, alive, well, and standing in the doorway of his store.

Oh my god.

Rory was here.

At Truncheon.

He wondered what exactly that meant. Had she come- at last- for him? She was talking, he had zoned out. She apologized for not RSVPing, he made up some response on the spot (afterwards he would have no idea what, but he was too caught up in staring at her out of the corner of his eye to pay attention). He left her with Luke and April for a moment while he went to fetch his gift to Luke. As he returned to the little group, he picked up on Luke's "my fiancée, Lorelai, you met her that one time," cover. He was going to have to have a talk with his uncle about the proper treatment of Gilmore girls...

Rory. Rory was here. Rory had come to Truncheon.

He shook his head slightly, trying to keep his thoughts off of her for a second, but it was difficult, with her standing there looking so pretty and talking to April. So he pulled Luke away and handed him a copy of The Subsect, and the cheque contained therein.

"What's this?" Luke asked, examining the slip of paper distastefully.

"It's what's owed."

"You don't owe me anything," his uncle protested.

Jess shook his head. "I owe you. And if you rip it up, I'm just gonna send another one." He needed to do this. He needed to make up for his teenage years. He'd been a pill and he knew it and short of working in the diner unpaid for several decades, he couldn't think of any other way to make it up to his uncle.

Luke sighed. "I'm very proud of you. Of this - of what you're going for here. I don't get all of it, but... I'm me."

Jess laughed, and together they returned to catch the tail end of Rory and April's conversation. His eyes strayed to Rory, and he was amazed to realize just how strongly he still felt about her. He had known already that he wasn't over her, not by a long shot, but seeing her here, vibrant and beautiful and smiling, drove home that he had missed her fiercely.

* * *

Rory watched Luke and April's retreating backs worriedly. She was worried for her mother and for Luke. There was something wrong and she knew it and she didn't know what she could do to help and... Jess. Jess was standing across from her, watching her intently. He picked up on her anxiety and gave a little shrug, which somehow seemed to discharge the tension immediately. She felt herself relax as her soon to be step-family disappeared and Jess took up the whole of her attention.

"So... you're here alone?" Jess asked.

Rory wondered how loaded the question was. "I guess I am," she answered honestly.

At her words, the corners of his lips twitched up at the corners, and Rory couldn't help but smile in response. That was an unfortunate side-effect of Jess' smile- she could never resist it and she'd long since given up trying.

"Cool," he said, then jerked his head to indicate that she should follow him. "Come on, I'll show you around." He led her across the room to stand at the back of the crowd gathered around the poet. "That's Jack Hornsby," he told her, pointing to the tall man droning out his poetry. As he leaned in close to whisper in her ear, Rory felt little shocks run through her everywhere his skin brushed against hers. She forced herself to ignore his proximity and focus on his words. "His sister, Laura, is a poet as well, and she's actually a lot better. We tried to get her here, but she was out of town today, so we settled for Jack."

"He's not bad," Rory commented, listening to the lines he was declaiming.

Jess shrugged. "No, not bad. But he isn't as reliable as we'd--"

"Atoll for none!" Jack announced. "Isolation and the bodiless soul! Broken arrows and silent sea. Crying, keening--"

"Oh god," Jess groaned, slapping a hand over his eyes in irritation. Then he looked around and, catching the nervous eyes of a mousy young man clutching a beer, drew his fingers swiftly across his throat in a cutting motion and jerked his head at the poet. "Stop him!" he mouthed.

"How?" the other man mouthed back.

"I don't know... be smooth!" Jess waved a casual hand at his colleague and turned back to Rory. "Sorry about that," he whispered. "Jack wasn't supposed to debut his new material until we had a chance to do some editing. Told you he's not so reliable."

Rory giggled. "I hear poets can be temperamental that way."

"Oh yeah," Jess agreed emphatically. "Matthew's in charge of all the poets, mainly because he's the only one willing to put up with them."

That got her thinking. "So... what exactly does your job involve, then?"

He shrugged. "We all do a little bit of everything, but we all have our specialties. Chris--" He pointed across the room at a dark-skinned man about their age who was watching Jack Hornsby with an expression of resigned horror on his face. "--Is sort of our talent scout. He was the one who got me involved. And Jacob isn't here right now, but he's our visual arts guy. Matt handles the poets, like I said. I mostly just hide in the back room and edit."

"Sounds perfect for you," Rory said with a teasing grin. "Writing, forming opinions, letting your perfectionist streak run a little wild..." When Jess gave her a look, she shrugged. "Come on, admit it, you know you can be a little bit of a perfectionist when you actually commit to doing something."

He smirked, but nodded his acknowledgement of her point. "It's pretty good. I like it. Matthew always gets a little nuts trying to get everything done the week before we put out the 'zine, but he's not exactly what you'd call normal anyway, so..." He shrugged, and it was apparent to Rory that despite his casual attitude, he loved his job. It warmed her heart to see that the unhappy boy she remembered had grown into a man who had truly found his place in the world and friends he cared about.

"Aww, you have your own Paris!" she joked.

He snorted. "Something like that. How has the holy terror been?"

"She arranged for us to be suite mates my freshman year. Dated Asher Fleming."

"Ah, yeah, I heard he died in bed," Jess said.

Rory shook her head. "You heard wrong. Believe me, Paris made that very clear after he passed. It was pretty rough on her, but she's got a new boyfriend now so... that's good, I suppose. Last month she almost ran the Yale Daily News into the ground, so I ended up taking her place as editor, which of course made her furious, but we got past it. I'm living with her again."

Jess' expression threatened to turn up into a smile yet again. "So you're back at school?" he asked, looking pleased.

She nodded. "I wanted to thank you. For all those things you said back in November, I mean. You were right about everything, and you made me pull my head out of the sand. Thanks, Jess."

"I didn't tell you anything you didn't already know," he said, typically over-modest, refusing to take credit for a good deed.

She wondered where that had come from, what had started that habit in him. And suddenly she found herself wanting to know everything. She wanted to know what his childhood had been like (she could guess, but she didn't _know_), she wanted to know how he had found himself here in Philly, she wanted to know the big things and the little things and the boring, innocuous things. It was a fascination she'd always felt with him, suddenly reasserting itself full-force. It was almost too much, but at the same time... it wasn't. This was Jess. Everything was ten times more intense with him. Why should that change, just because they'd both done some growing up?

"Maybe," she replied to his comment. "But god only knows how long I would have kept walking around half-asleep if you hadn't woken me up? You're kind of my hero."

He shuffled his feet, shrugging, and if Rory hadn't known better, she'd have sworn he was blushing a little. She debated calling him on it, but decided against it. She could tease him mercilessly later, if necessary.

Suddenly, her own thought process shocked her a little. The idea of being able to tease him later, the idea that he might be around to be teased, was simultaneously a novelty and extremely appealing. She'd known when she came here that accepting the invitation meant the beginning of a new phase in their convoluted story, but until just now, she hadn't realized quite how much she missed having him around. Jess was one of the few people she knew who was able to have an intellectual conversation on her level. He spoke her language, riddled with obscure references and bizarre analogies, more fluently than anyone but the woman who had taught it to her.

His own words from months before came back to her, and she knew that he was right. He _did_ know her better than anyone else. Her mother might sympathize and care about her to the ends of the earth, and Lane might know every detail of her existence, but there were times that they just didn't seem to understand what she was really feeling. Jess, though... Jess could read her mind.

As her thoughts wound down to this startling conclusion, Rory came back to awareness of her surroundings to realize that Jack Hornsby was being ushered hurriedly off the riser by Matthew. Jess was shaking his head disgustedly.

"It wasn't _that_ bad," Rory said.

"Were you actually _listening_ to that?" he demanded. "Jack writes good stuff, but he never gets it right until about the fifth go-around. I think he might actually have been making that up on the spot."

She shrugged her acquiescence. "Could be. It was a little... vague."

Jess rolled his eyes at her understatement. "Come on, I'll show you around. Not much to see, but since you're here, I'm obligated under threat of an hour of Matthew's nagging to give you the tour."

Fighting back giggles, Rory followed him across the room, away from the platform riser, now occupied by Chris, who was making some kind of announcement to the gaggle of people who had appeared for the open house.

* * *

Jess was dragged away from her by an impatient Matthew some fifteen minutes later, and Rory occupied herself with browsing the shelves. They had stocked a wide selection of books, everything from slim, illustrated volumes of poetry to The Gulag Archipelago. The works personally published by Truncheon were displayed in a subtly prominent way, and it wasn't too long before Rory came across a few shelved copies of The Subsect. Grinning, she was reaching for one of them when suddenly Jess' voice sounded again behind her.

"Hey," he said. "Sorry about that. Matt was having a panic attack--"

Rory turned around. "It's okay, Jess!" she hurried to interrupt him. "This is your thing, you shouldn't have to keep me entertained."

Jess shrugged. "Hey, if Matthew's irrational fear of pretty women will keep me from having to deal with him for twenty minutes, I'm more than happy to "entertain you," as you put it." It was a revealing statement, Rory thought. It was familiar- so many times when they'd been younger, he'd made similar excuses to spend time with her. But now the slight upward twitch at one corner of his mouth, an expression that had rarely been present before, alerted those who couldn't read him like she could that he was joking: his colleague didn't really get on his nerves as much as his words suggested. And unless she was imagining things, he had slipped a compliment to her in there somewhere. Unsure how to respond to that, she simply offered him a shy smile.

"Well in that case, I suppose I can offer my services as a coworker deterrent," she teased.

"I'm so relieved," he deadpanned.

Rory pointed to The Subsect. "So, when I said I wanted to see this in a store, I didn't think I'd get to see it in _the_ store!"

He glanced at the books, and despite all the disparaging comments he'd made on the subject of his book back in November, Rory could clearly see a gleam of pride in his eyes when his eyes caught his name on the spines. "I've always thought you'd like this place," he told her. "It was part of what drew me in here the very first time."

"Ooh, is this the part where you get to tell me what you've been doing since... well..." Rory turned pink, realizing that she might be straying onto a sensitive topic.

"Since we parted on bad terms?" Jess finished for her with a self-depricating expression on his face. "You can say it, you know. I was a moron that night and I know it. We've got history. Whatever. You don't have to tiptoe around it." At her nervous nod, he continued, "Yeah, I can tell you the story, if you really want it."

"I do!" Rory assured him quickly.

"After I ambushed you at Yale, I realized that, as much as I wanted to think I'd gotten my life straight, I really hadn't. So I settled up with my landlord and got in my car and just... started driving up and down the coast, working odd jobs from town to town whenever I needed cash. I'd been writing for awhile, but it didn't really turn into anything concrete until I wound up stuck in this little fishing town in Maine for two weeks while my engine got repaired. I was pissed and I was broke and everything just got to be too much. Then I just went into this... coma, I guess is the only right word, and when I finally remembered that the rest of the world existed, there I was with this book I'd written."

"How very Jack Kerouac of you," Rory laughed, thinking of the story behind On The Road's creation.

"Anyway, I'd gotten all my shit out of my system, but I still didn't know what the hell I was gonna do. So I blew the last of my money on a bus ticket, on an impulse decided to get off in Philadelphia. After a few weeks of working in this crappy fast-food joint, I had saved up enough cash to buy a book or two. I found my way in here- it was actually in this tiny place down on Locust, originally, we've moved since then- and the manuscript fell out of my bag and Matthew picked it up and, with his total lack of respect for personal privacy, he read part of it while I was looking around, and after that things just kind of... happened. They wanted to publish, I needed a job, it all worked out."

"And now the world has an amazing literary work that will probably be as beloved as _Sketches by Boz_ someday!" Rory said confidently.

He smirked. "Doubt that," he mumbled, clearly embarrassed by her praise.

"You don't get to doubt it. A creator is always too close to their own work to properly evaluate it."

"Except, apparently, in the case of Howard Roark. Egotistical freak..."

Rory clapped her hands excitedly. "You read it?!" she exclaimed.

He nodded. "Yep."

"So, come on, what did you think?"

"It was... not as bad on the sixth attempt," Jess confessed. "If you forget Ayn Rand's sociopolitical ranting and just focus on the words, her writing is really beautiful. That made it bearable."

"Jess Mariano, that might be the first time I ever heard you admit you were wrong about something!"

"I'm not saying I like the thing, or that Rand isn't crazy. I'm just saying, the woman had a way with words."

"That she did," Rory agreed. "Maybe I'll have to get you a copy of We The Living next."

Jess shook his head wildly. "Ugh, no, The Fountainhead was bad enough! No more Ayn Rand!"

At that moment, one of his coworkers (Chris, Rory thought he had called him) shouted across the room, "Yo, Mariano! Get over here, I need a hand!"

He glanced at her apologetically and Rory waved him away. "Go!" she said. "I'll be fine here on my own, believe me. I've got books, what more do I need?" He nodded and hurried to assist his friend.

* * *

The afternoon had been amazing, Rory felt. She hadn't gotten to spend much time with Jess- Matthew and Chris kept calling him away to do his job- but that was alright with her. She was able to catch a few minutes of conversation at a time, and it was interesting, watching him work. It made her disproportionately pleased, seeing him doing something he clearly loved. He looked content. He looked balanced. He looked...

Actually, he looked _really_ good. Jess had always been jarringly good-looking, but the few years that had passed since they were teenagers had taken his already handsome face and perfected it. Not to mention, she couldn't help but notice that he had filled out very nicely underneath his blazer. How was it that after three years, he was still intoxicating to her?

She distracted herself by attempting to reread The Subsect.

No such luck, as Jess suddenly sat down opposite her on a stool. "You know, you don't have to read it again," he insisted.

Rory shook her head, grinning. "I know I don't."

"God, there's _so_ many things I would change in it," he complained.

"Like what?" she asked, honestly bewildered.

He shrugged. "I'd, uh, keep the back cover. Everything else goes!"

She laughed at his self-deprecating expression. "You know why I love your book?" she asked. "It doesn't remind me of anything. It's not a ripoff. It's just you."

"High praise, Miss Yale Editor!" Jess exclaimed, touching her arm gently.

His fingertips sent shockwaves through her body, even with the separating fabric of her sweater between them. "I don't get to write as much as I would like," she told him honestly. "I'm mostly assigning, motivating, hand-holding and rewriting."

"Yeah, and you love it," he said, meeting her eyes with a small smile. "Every minute of it. Come on, tell me you don't."

"I do. I do love it. It's exciting."

Jess' expression was still light, but his eyes looked a little more serious as he said, "You look happier than when I saw you last."

Rory nodded. "I am."

And then he looked nervous. She wasn't sure if he was aware how much his face was giving away, but there he was. Jess Mariano. Nervous. If she hadn't had suspicions about why he was nervous (in all honesty, she was nervous too, probably for the same reasons), she would have found it hilarious. "So... you fixed everything?"

"Yeah, everything's fixed," she responded. And it was. She felt... free. She felt like she'd been carrying around a weight for the last year, and over the last few weeks, it had finally lifted away.

One corner of Jess' mouth quirked upward just the tiniest bit. "I'm glad you're here," he told her quietly, and his eyes were vulnerable.

"Me too," she said softly.

He leaned in and kissed her on the mouth.


	4. Doesn't Need Words

**A/N-** You have no idea how much I love this fic. I really, really meant to work on Paperthin Hymn first (check that out, by the way, I'm having fun with it), but I just couldn't wait even five minutes after publishing Ch3 to start work on this. After all, you can't just leave it with a cliffy kiss like that and not dive in immediately to Ch4. *I* was wondering what would happen next and I actually *know*. So... yeah.

* * *

4. Doesn't Need Words

* * *

_"I'm glad you're here," he told her._

_"Me too," she said softly._

_He leaned in and kissed her on the mouth._

Electricity shot through Rory's entire body and the indecision she had been feeling all afternoon melted away. She kissed him back wholeheartedly, and as she did so, she felt strangely _complete_, as if she'd rediscovered a tiny part of herself she hadn't known was missing. She had known before that she still had feelings for Jess. She had first had an inkling that there was still something there when he had visited her in November, and after that he had popped up in her thoughts more often than before (and if she was honest, she had thought about him more than she thought was normal). Two weeks before, when she had gone through her Jess box after that disastrous Friday night dinner, she had finally admitted to herself that she still cared for him. Until now, though, it hadn't hit home just how much she had missed him.

As they eased mutually out of the kiss, Rory's eyes slid open. Jess' eyes remained closed, and if he had looked vulnerable before, it was nothing compared to now. As he slowly opened his eyes to look at her, he looked so nervous she almost laughed. That alone told her that she wasn't crazy for wanting this.

"I--" he began, but the words seemed to get stuck in his throat. He tried again. "Was that... okay?"

Rory nodded, her expression still soft. "Very okay," she said.

The uncertainty in Jess' expression vanished and a happy smile spread across his face. "So...?"

She nodded again. "Yeah," she assured him. "I've missed you."

"Huh."

The bemused expression on his face as he said it, and the nostalgia-invoking familiarity of his favorite syllable, were too much for her, and she leaned across the space between them and planted a soft kiss on his lips.

When she pulled back, Jess smiled at her, taking her hand almost as a reflex. "I know there's a lot of baggage, a lot of history with us, but--"

Rory shook her head. She wasn't ready to get into all the dirty details of their past. It would have to be done, better sooner than later, but something about this moment was too pure to be sullied by their history. She wanted to preserve tonight and keep it pristine. "Don't," she told him. "We'll figure it all out later. We've got time. For now, though, this- you and me- it's right, you know? It doesn't need words."

He smirked. "And here I was thinking that you'd tell me that giving us a second chance was scary or something."

"It is scary," she said. "But I never could get over you, and I'm tired of pretending I have."

"Okay then," Jess replied, and they lapsed into easy silence for a few seconds. Then he said, "So, you wanna stick around here for awhile, or we could go take a walk...?"

Rory grinned. "A walk sounds excellent."

"Okay then."

They got up and left Truncheon together, with Jess pausing only a moment to turn out the lights and check the lock on the door. Once he had ascertained that his bookstore wouldn't be burglarized in his absence, they wandered together down the block, neither of them with any particular destination in mind.

Rory realized that he was still holding her hand, and the thought made her smile. When they had dated in high school, they hadn't done much hand-holding; usually he'd had an arm slung around her shoulder or waist. It was only a small thing that had changed over the intervening years, but it was a nice one. It felt comfortable and natural and made her feel strangely secure.

He glanced down at her and she realized that he was beaming, not even bothering to conceal it. The idea that she could make him this happy stunned her a little, and her heart literally fluttered. She responded with a widening in her own grin. She was right earlier- for two people who dealt so strongly in words, this thing between them didn't need them.

And so they meandered through the nighttime streets of Philadelphia for several minutes without speaking, just enjoying each others' company. Eventually, though, all Rory's unending supply of words and ideas filled up to the bursting point and out of the blue she said, "Hey, have you ever read The House of the Spirits?"

"Allende?" he asked, surprised, though whether by her sudden question or by the content, she wasn't sure. "Sure. I liked Portrait in Sepia better, though. Aurora is a far more entertaining heroine than Alba..."

* * *

Jess was walking on cloud nine-thousand. Here he was, roaming the neighborhood he had become familiar with over the last year with the girl of his dreams by his side. He hadn't hoped for much when he'd invited her to come to the open house- or at least, he hadn't thought he hoped for much. Apparently he was wrong, though, because something in him had provoked him to kiss her (couldn't resist, even after all this time), taking a gamble. And it had paid off. He could never have guessed, a week ago, that tonight would end with himself and Rory finally having that chance to catch up... in total solitude... with intermittent periods of kissing... as they walked through the silent streets...

There was only one thing bothering him now, and he was about to give voice to it when his phone rang. With a an apologetic look at Rory, he answered the call.

_"Hey, Mariano! What the hell, man? Chris said you said you were gonna catch up! Where are you?"_

Jess sighed inwardly. "Sorry, Matthew, I've got better things to do than go drinking with you guys."

_"What, holing yourself up in the apartment with your laptop? No way, my friend! We deserve a night on the town after all the--"_ At that point, the beginning of Matthew's grand "We deserve beer because we work hard" speech was cut off by Chris' deep voice in the background. When Matt began speaking again, his tone was different. _"Oh, is it the girl?"_ he asked.

"What girl?" Jess tried to pretend ignorance, wanting to keep his privacy (not to mention his sanity) just a little longer.

_"The one you've been pining for the whole time I've known you?"_ Matt phrased it as if it were a question; it wasn't.

He sighed, outwardly this time. His friends officially knew him way too well, and had plied him with alcohol one too many times. "Yes, I'm with her," he said, resigned to his fate. "And her name is _Rory_." He could practically see Matthew's Cheshire-Cat grin.

_"Alright then, bring her along! We'd love to meet the girl who captured the heart of Jess Mariano, international man of mystery."_

"No way, man," Jess said. "I'm not subjecting her to you and--"

_"That's not very nice!"_ Matthew interrupted. _"Not wanting to introduce your girlfriend to your friends? That's not a sign of a healthy relationship, my friend!"_

Jess rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine, I'll ask her," he acquiesced. "I'll see you when I see you."

Rory was looking at him curiously. "What are you supposed to ask me?"

He shrugged, slipping his phone back into his pocket. "The guys just want me to come drinking with them to celebrate, and I said no and they deduced that I was with you and apparently decided to include you in the invitation. We don't have to go, though, if you don't want to."

"Oh, no, I don't want to stop you from celebrating! This open house thing was a big deal. Besides, I want to meet your friends. For real, not just you pointing them out to me across the room," Rory said quickly.

Though he was still a little unsure about subjecting Rory to the attentions of his friends so soon, he reasoned that she had grown up in Stars Hollow so she'd probably be more than able to deal with his weirdo roommates. And his other concern... well, he wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer just yet. So he did the only thing he could do, and agreed, sending Matthew a text to say that they'd be there shortly, then altering their course to direct them towards the pub where Chris had indicated they'd be.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, Rory seemed to pick up on his jumbled emotions and asked, "Is everything okay?"

"It's really that obvious?" Jess asked weakly.

Rory shrugged. "You're quiet, even for you. And you've got that look in your eye that you always get when you're worried about something."

As always, she could read his signals like a book. And, as always, she was terrible at interpreting their cause. He hesitated. There was a chance that the answer he got wouldn't be the one he wanted, and he wanted to delay that as long as possible. But at the same time, not knowing was killing him.

"It's just... you and me, what are we? If the two stooges get nosy- and I guarantee you, they will- can I call you my girlfriend? I mean, I know I sound like a total idiot for worrying about it, but I've wanted this for so long, and now that something's finally happening I'm--"

"Scared to trust it?" she finished for him.

He nodded.

Rory smiled softly. "I know exactly what you mean. You and me is... complicated. We both know that. Like you said, there's going to be history to sort out. But I'd say that calling me your girlfriend sounds about right."

With his one worry dispelled and his reservations removed, Jess felt a swell of joy in his chest. He leaned down and kissed her fiercely. When he pulled back, Rory seemed a little breathless and he couldn't help but smirk in satisfaction. "I like the sound of that," he said.

"Clearly." She grinned at him.

Jess tucked an arm around her waist, loving the feeling of having her so close to him as they walked the remaining few blocks to the pub. Once they were standing outside the establishment in question, he hesitated. "Brace yourself," he warned her. "Hurricane Matthew is a little terrifying at times. Chris will probably be cool, but he has a bad habit of egging Matt on once he gets started."

"I thought you said Matthew had a phobia about girls," Rory pointed out.

"Ugh, I wish it were just that simple," Jess groaned. "I should have been more specific- he has issues with _single_ pretty girls. It was exactly the same when Chris started dating Diana; before she and Chris got together, Matthew couldn't string together two words around her. The second she hooked up with Chris, though..." Jess shuddered at the memories of a liberated Matthew.

Rory laughed. "You have strange friends," she said.

"You're the one who voluntarily spends time with Paris Gellar," he said dryly.

"As I recall, you got on pretty well with Paris yourself," she pointed out.

"Yeah, well, what can I say? I'm a gregarious, easy-going guy."

She laughed and kissed him on the cheek. "Sure you are," she said teasingly. "C'mon, let's go inside. I want to meet these so-called stooges."

* * *

**A/N2-** Alrighty then, that's that. I promise I'm going to get Paperthin Hymn updated soon, but I just had to get this posted. Later today there will hopefully be another in the Rewritten Scene series, and then PH. Okay? Now review, maybe it'll happen *faster*...


	5. The Friends

**A/N-** I cannot come up with a decent witty, insightful comment to start off with, so I'll just stick with a reminder to check out my forums for information about my stories. And also that, while the first half of this chapter was really awesome, the last two scenes kinda bugged me. IDK why, but I've totally learned my lesson about writing with the TV on!

* * *

5. The Friends

* * *

Jess looked tensely resigned as they walked into the bar, so Rory gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "These are your _friends_, remember?" she pointed out in a low voice.

"Doesn't mean they don't belong in a mental institution," he responded.

As they approached the round booth in the corner, she studied the collection of people waiting for them. Jack Hornsby, the poet, was there with his dreadlocks and a pair of highly incongruous wire-rimmed glasses. Next to him was the twitchy-looking, sandy-haired man whom Jess had referred to as Matthew. Beside him was the dark young man whose name, Rory thought, was Chris. He had his arm around a stunningly beautiful blonde with gold-toned skin and sparkling green eyes. Rory suddenly felt lackluster and insignificant in comparison.

"Hey guys," Jess said with a decided lack of enthusiasm.

"Oh, we're so sorry to have interrupted your plans," Chris shot back teasingly.

As Rory slid into the booth between the blonde and Jess, he introduced his friends. "Thing One here is Matthew Summers, and Thing Two is Chris Matherson," he said. "And this is Jack Hornsby, you heard his crappy attempt at spontaneous free verse earlier-"

"Hey, it wasn't _that_ bad!" Jack interrupted.

"Yeah, man, it was," Chris said in a commiserating tone.

Ignoring them, Jess continued, pointing around her to the blonde, "And that's Diana Hunter, Chris' girlfriend."

"Finally, another girl!" Diana exclaimed. "I tell you, I've been drowning in a sea of testosterone without Laura around! Aren't you gonna introduce your friend, Jess?"

Jess shot her a good-natured glare. "I'm getting to it," he grumbled. "Guys, this is Rory Gilmore."

Diana's eyes widened slightly. "_Oh_," she said, apparently coming to understand something. She turned to flash Rory a smile. "Nice to meet you, Rory."

Jack chose that moment to interject, "Yeah, we've all been dying to meet Mariano's mystery woman."

"The book dedication girl," Chris added.

"The one he's been pining for all these years," Matthew chimed in. "The girl who 'changed his life' and 'inspired him to be a better person'..."

"Guys, stop! You're embarrassing them," Diana interrupted. "Jessica's blushing."

Rory glanced up at Jess and saw that he had, in fact, turned a little pink, and found it to be one of the most adorable things she had ever seen. He shot a nervous glance at her and she grinned, giving him a kiss on the cheek, while trying to hide the fact that her mind was racing. Jess had said earlier that he'd missed her, and she'd known that he meant it. But it wasn't until now, hearing his friends say these things, that she realized just how _much_ he meant it. It had been just as hard for him to forget her as it had been for her to leave him behind. The knowledge that he still cared that deeply for her probably should have scared her, but it didn't. Somehow, it validated her own feelings. It made the last three years of feeling like there was something just a little off okay.

"So, Rory, tell us about yourself," Diana asked, jerking her back to the present.

"I grew up in this little town in Connecticut-" she began, but was cut off by Chris.

"Stars Hollow," he supplied. "Jess has told us stories. Sounds like a pretty cool place."

"Really? You got 'pretty cool' out of Jess' take on Stars Hollow?"

"Hey, it's not _hell_," Jess protested. "Even if the name does lend itself to some interesting slips of the tongue. Besides, these bozos are just psycho enough that they'd probably be right at home with Kirk as their roommate."

Diana shook her head. "I take umbrage!" she exclaimed light-heartedly. "I agree with you, these three ought to be locked up for the safety of the general public, but I, for one, like to consider myself quite sane and stable."

"Is that any kind of thing to say about your boyfriend of over a year?" Chris demanded, pouting.

She shrugged. "Didn't say you weren't a sex god. Just that you're crazy."

Matthew, Jess, and Jack simultaneously winced. "Ugh, _so_ not what I want to picture when I think about the guy who's editing my manuscripts!" Jack complained. "Control your woman!"

"Control your poems!" Jess shot back.

"At least it's better than Bearded Actor Studio Interview Guy shedding his conservatism and doing naked partying," Rory interjected.

Jess snorted. "You actually remember that?"

"I've got a good memory," she said with a shrug. "Speaking of which, what ever happened to my copy of The Holy Barbarians? You never gave it back."

"I think it's actually in Luke's closet somewhere," Jess said.

"Good. I really want to finish it."

"You know they do actually print more than one copy of a book, right?"

"Well, I wanted to read it with your notes in it," she rationalized. "You did put notes in it, right?"

"Of course."

She smiled, glad that they could touch on the happy parts of their shared history without having to dredge up the bad parts, too. They both _knew_ the reason why he had never given her the book back, but it didn't have to be the focus of the thought. That was a good sign, she thought. Rory hoped that, when they got around to hashing out their past, they'd be able to deal with it like mature adults.

Chris chose that moment to say, "Aw, look. Jessie finally has somebody who appreciates his vandalism."

Diana shook her head. "Let it be, Chris. You're going to have to get over it."

"He wrote in my copy of The Virgin Blue!" Chris said.

"A year ago," Diana said patiently. "Just let it go already! Now, I believe we were getting to know Rory before we got off on this bizarre tangent...?"

"Sounds about right," Jack said. "So, Rory, you grew up in Stars Hollow, which is _not_ a gated community for the criminally insane-"

"That we know of," Jess interjected.

"-And that's about as far as we got before Chris here distracted us."

"I grew up in Stars Hollow, attended private school, and now I'm studying journalism at Yale," Rory said, suddenly nervous again. Thanks to her grandmother's constant harping on the subject, she knew how a person's background could influence how people viewed them. And it didn't just work that way in Emily Gilmore's rarified circles; what would Jess' bohemian friends think of her expensive education?

Diana smiled. "My brother's going to Yale," she said, and Rory's fears were instantly reduced. "Maybe you've seen him around- Sam Hunter?"

Rory shook her head. "Can't say that I have. I'll keep an eye out for him, though. What year is he?"

"Sophomore. Studying marine biology, 'cause he's a moron who wants to go to school forever. I keep telling him to screw the oceans and come put his _real_ talent to good use, but apparently he values job security over unleashing his inner Picasso, so whatever. His loss."

Matt snorted. "Keep telling yourself that, Di. Maybe eventually you'll convince yourself his paintings didn't pay for the move from Locust."

Diana shook her head, her mane of golden locks tumbling over her shoulders. "No, I think we can agree that The Subsect did that."

"No more tangents!" Chris suddenly shouted. "I want to know about Rory, and all you idiots going off about whatever random thing pops into your head isn't helping accomplish that!"

Rory laughed quietly when she noticed that Jess had covered his eyes with one hand and was shaking his head in resignation.

"Hate to break it to you, dear," Diana said sarcastically, "But that's how conversations work."

"Not in my world they don't," Chris grumbled, but it was clear he'd capitulated with almost no fight. "So, Rory, Yale. What else?"

"There's not really much more to tell," Rory said. "I'm not all that interesting."

Matt shook his head, making a pale imitation of Jess' patented smirk. "Guess we'll just have to make stuff up, then."

* * *

For two hours, Jess' friends kept themselves wildly entertained concocting absurd stories about Rory's life. It was a startling contrast from the "fun" evenings out she had experienced over the last year, and she found herself quickly becoming at ease with Jess' friends. The evening concluded with the six of them walking back to Truncheon.

"I guess I should go," Rory said sadly when they arrived. "It's a long drive back to New Haven."

"I'll walk you out to your car," Jess said, placing a hand on the small of her back and guiding her out the door.

"You don't have to do that," Rory said. "I'm parked right out front."

"Ah, but this way I have an excuse to kiss you senseless without my esteemed colleagues watching."

Rory giggled as they stopped in front of her car. "Want to get started on that?"

Jess leaned in close, so close she could feel his breath against her skin. His nose brushed against hers and he hovered just over her lips, teasing her. Finally, Rory could stand it no longer and she closed the tiny distance between them in a rush. It was electric, this kiss. She had forgotten how good kissing him was, and it felt like every nerve in her body simultaneously came alive.

Eventually, though, her curling toes couldn't compete with her need for air and they broke apart, foreheads resting together and arms around each other. "How's that for senseless?" Jess asked breathlessly.

"Pretty good start," she responded. After a moment she said, in a tone that wasn't quite question nor quite statement, "So we're really doing this."

"So it would appear," he answered. "I've missed you like hell, Rory."

"And I am going to _miss_ you like hell," she told him. "I wish I didn't have class tomorrow."

"We've gone years without seeing each other," Jess reminded her. "I think we'll be able to handle a couple of weeks."

Suddenly, Rory remembered something. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "That reminds me, Lane's getting married next Saturday, and I was thinking, maybe you could come and be my plus one?"

Jess pretended to ponder it. "Hm, I don't know, spend a Saturday with my girlfriend that otherwise would be used dealing with Matthew and his sock obsession? Tough choice."

"You do realize this means you'll have to come back to Stars Hollow, right?"

He shook his head, smirking. "Like I said, it's not hell. I can deal. So who's the guy?"

"What?"

"Who's Lane getting married to?"

"Oh, Zach Van Gerbig."

Jess looked at her strangely. "Follow Them To The Edge of the Desert Guy?" he asked incredulously.

Rory laughed. "That would be the one."

"And he would be just about the _last_ guy on earth I would have guessed Lane would get married to."

"Well, he does share her interest in music," she pointed out.

"Music, books, I think I'm seeing a theme with these Stars Hollow couples," he teased.

Rory shook her head, unsuccessfully fighting a grin. "Well, where would we be without the finer things in life?"

Jess kissed her again, then pulled back with a sigh. "You should probably go. It's a long drive back to Connecticut."

"I'm not liking this goodbye thing," she told him.

"I'll call you," he said.

After a few more moments hesitation, Rory forced herself to say goodbye, get in the car, and drive away from the little bookshop in Philadelphia and the young man who was standing in front of it, watching her go...

* * *

"Okay, who was _that_?" Matthew demanded the second Jess returned inside.

Jess sighed. "That was Rory. Where are the others?"

"Jack went home, probably to smoke something. Chris and Diana went upstairs-"

"Which of course means neither of us should for about the next twenty minutes unless we want to see and hear things that could potentially scar us for life?"

Matthew shrugged. "At least this time he had the courtesy to hang a tie on the door this time."

"I didn't know Chris owned a tie."

"He doesn't. He used mine."

"Oh god, that is just _insulting_!"

"Tell me about it," Matthew said. "So, seriously, man, who _is _she? I don't think I've seen you smile that much... well, _ever_."

Jess sat down on the stairs, shaking his head. "I was not smiling that much," he protested.

"Oh yes you were! Even by normal standards you looked unusually happy. By your standards, it was positively disturbing! I didn't even know you _could_ smile until, like, three months after I met you, but the second she turns up you can't keep a grin off your face and you're actually laughing! Either the apocalypse is on its way, or you really like this girl."

"Rory is... special," Jess said.

"I mean, we gathered that there _was_ a girl from some stuff you've said, but I figured she'd broken your heart and that was the end of it," Matthew continued.

Jess shrugged. "She didn't break my heart, I broke hers."

"And yet she's still looking at you like that?"

Despite his attempt to maintain his cool about the whole Rory subject, pretend- to his friends, at least- like it wasn't as big of a deal as it was, Jess' interest was piqued. "Like what?"

"Like... I don't know. She just had this expression on her face whenever she looked at you. I don't know how to describe it."

"And yet you claim to be so good with words," Jess said sarcastically.

Matt shrugged. "Whatever, man. But she's totally smitten with you, god knows why."

"You're so good for my ego."

"That's what I'm here for."

"Think the lovebirds are done up there?"

"Better give them another half an hour. Book?"

"Sure."

* * *

**Reviews are always appreciated. As many before me have said, they make the world go 'round.**


	6. Nobody Expects the French Inquisition!

**A/N-** I was *this* close to updating The Mariano Files, seeing as this chapter and the next installment in that series are set around the same time, but then I was like, "eh, people are probably more anxious to read this than The Mariano Files," so I settled in to write this instead. And it doesn't help that the Driving Miss Gilmore chapter of TMF is intruding on my thought process for the intervening chapters and it's kind of making it impossible to keep writing it.

I would like to say that my new Pavement album is the ONLY reason I finished this chapter. This chapter, therefore, is dedicated to Stephen Malkmus. Thank you, Stephen, for being awesome.

* * *

6. Nobody Expects the French Inquisition!

* * *

"...So now he's pretty much locked himself in his room, swearing he's not coming out until women stop being confusing," Jess concluded his anecdote about the hapless Matthew's ill-fated fourth date with one of his poets.

Rory laughed. "Does he know that he's going to be in there for a really long time?"

"Wow, a woman actually admitting that the fairer sex make a habit out of messing with our minds on a semi-regular basis? The world might have just tilted off its axis," he teased.

"Hello, I grew up with my mother! I had seen more irrationality and general lack of logic by the time I was six than most people witness in their entire lifetime."

"Right. I keep forgetting that."

Rory fell silent for a moment, simply enjoying the happy, bubbly feeling. Jess had called twenty minutes before, and they had been engaging in idle conversation ever since, just working on reconnecting. It was unbelievable how good just talking to him was. This was their second conversation in the two days since their reunion, the first having taken place not even twenty-four hours after she had said good-bye to him in Philadelphia. Despite his joking at the beginning of that call about the "three day rule" not applying since they already knew each other well, she had a sneaking suspicion that he had actually been anxious to call her. It was kind of sweet, in a very Jess-like way.

"Ror? You still there?"

"Yeah, still here."

"You zone out on me?"

"Something like that," Rory said. "I was just thinking how nice this is."

She could practically hear Jess' cocking a questioning eyebrow. "Talking?"

"Yeah. It's really nice being able to have a conversation with you again. I missed that."

Rory had expected him to respond with something breezy and maybe just a little sarcastic. She was caught off-guard, therefore, when he said softly, "Me too. It was my favorite part the first time around."

And there was no way she could pass up such a golden opportunity to tease him. "Your favorite part? _Really_?" she asked in a tone laden with suggestion and innuendo.

"Well, maybe not my favorite. There were... other benefits," he conceded, and she could literally hear the smirk. Then his voice grew a little more sober again as he added, "But the conversation was always really good, too."

"Yeah, it was." At that moment, Rory heard the distinctive double-kick that signified someone fighting with the locks and about to enter the apartment. "Oops, that's Paris," she said. "Which means it's five o'clock, which means I need to get going if I'm going to keep my job at the Daily News."

He sounded slightly put out when he said, "Go on, go do newspaper stuff. Be editor."

Rory smiled. "Talk to you soon?"

"Yep. I'll call you tomorrow, provided Matthew has no more meltdowns."

She laughed. "Okay. Tell the guys I said hi."

"Will do. Bye, Ror."

"Bye, Jess."

Rory hung up, regretting the end of the conversation. At that moment, Paris finally won her battle with her security precautions and entered the apartment, flinging down her bag and coat before turning to stare at Rory for a long moment before asking, "What's up with you, Gilmore?"

Rory sighed as Paris' grating, you-just-interrupted-something-important-and-I-swear-to-god-I-will-make-you-suffer tone reached her ears. "What?" she asked, her happy mood fading and losing the smile she hadn't known she was wearing until it slipped.

"Ever since you got back Sunday, you've been wandering around here with a dopey grin on your face," Paris said.

"I have not!"

"You have too!" the blonde insisted. "It's been two days, and frankly it's irritating the hell out of me."

Trying to work out her friend's twisted logic, Rory asked, "Me being happy is irritating you?"

"No!" Paris exclaimed. "You having your I-met-a-guy face on and not giving me the details is irritating me!"

And the chips fell into place. "Oh," she said, suddenly understanding. Paris _hated_ not being in the loop about anything. "I didn't exactly _meet_ a guy, per se. I mean, reacquainted is really the best word for it because I already knew him," she began, drawing out the suspense and getting a little kick out of making Paris squirm for the details. Well, that and she wasn't really in the mood to have her day spoiled by a patented Paris Gellar lecture, this time to the tune of 'You Have To Stop Recycling Old Boyfriends.'

"_Please_ tell me you're not talking about Naked Guy," Paris groaned.

Rory laughed and shook her head as she pulled on her shoes. "Marty? No way. Marty and I are just friends. He's _really_ not my type. Actually, I went to see Jess on Sunday." Paris' eyebrows rose slightly, and Rory braced herself for the tirade.

"Well it's about time," Paris said matter-of-factly.

"What?"

The blonde shrugged. "It was only a matter of time before your Beat Generation Romeo came back around."

Rory stared.

"You didn't seriously think I didn't notice, did you?" Paris asked. "You've been weird since he bailed back in high school. Your year-long celibacy did not go unnoticed, believe me. And even after that, you started doing stuff that... well, wasn't you."

She continued to look, goggle-eyed, at her roommate. Had Jess' abrupt departure really affected her that noticeably? Rory had been all too painfully aware of just how much that particular event had hurt her on the inside, but had it really reflected so clearly in her actions that Paris, of all people, picked up on it and accurately determined the cause?

But Paris continued speaking, unaware of Rory's inner turmoil. "Back when you two were dating in high school, I thought you were surprisingly compatible. And if he's managed to develop any people skills at all in the interim-"

"He has," Rory interrupted, feeling a grin creep across her face.

"-Then you might actually be kind of perfect for each other. He's the yin to your yang, the Romeo to your Juliet, the Pip to your Estella, the Heathcliff to your Catherine, the Howard to your Dominique, the-"

"Right, I get what you're saying, Paris," Rory said, wondering just how long she could go on in that vein, and fearing that if she didn't stop her quickly, Paris would proceed to list every literary romance ever imagined. Not to mention, she couldn't help but feel slightly insulted upon being compared to Estella Havisham! "Listen, I have to get going. I need to put the paper to bed, and Bill sent me an SOS page a few minutes ago."

Paris frowned, but nodded. "Fine, go, do whatever. But as soon as you get home, I want details! My love life has become boring and predictable. I need to live vicariously through your upheaval for my entertainment!"

Rory waved over her shoulder to show she'd heard as she made a hasty exit from the apartment.

* * *

When she returned several hours later, Rory wanted nothing more than a hot shower and a Twix bar. Sadly, her blonde roommate was waiting to pounce on her the second she stepped into the apartment. "So, inform me!" she demanded the moment Rory had freed herself from her coat. "What's the deal with you and Diner Boy?"

Rory pondered how to answer when the house phone rang. Paris was closer, and reached for the receiver with a decidedly annoyed air. "Paris here," she bit out. "Oh, hi Lorelai. Yeah, she's here. I was just interrogating her about the new man in her life. What do you know that she hasn't told me? What? Well for the love of god, why not? You two have that whole freakish mother/daughter... Fine, here she is."

The blonde shoved the phone at Rory, who took it apprehensively. It had only been a few days since that dreamlike night in Philadelphia, and Rory had wanted to keep her 'happy bubble' to herself for a few days before telling anyone and risking having said bubble burst by the intrusions of the outside world. She couldn't believe how happy the knowledge that Jess still cared for her made her. Only a month previously, she had still been happily residing in Denialville; moreover, part of her still thought it should've been harder. There should have been a screaming match in Doose's market, or he should have had a girlfriend, or she should've had a boyfriend. There should've been something standing in their way. There hadn't been, though. It had been easy, just a silent, blissful surrender to the inevitable, and it made her hope that maybe this time, they could make it stick.

But for now, though, she had to deal with Lorelai, whose reaction to the news might not be as positive as she hoped for. "Hi," she said, moving away from Paris and into her bedroom, shutting the door (though she knew it would do know good, suspecting that Paris would simply listen at the keyhole). "Thanks for saving me. Paris was giving me the third degree."

_Nobody expects the French Inquisition!"_ her mother exclaimed as she bastardized the infamous line.

"Isn't it supposed to be the Spanish Inquisition?"

_"Paris? France?"_

"Oh. Of course. How stupid of me."

_"So what's this I hear about a new man? Did you hook up with some random guy at a party? You_ did_? Oh, you are _so_ my hero!"_

Rory sighed, hearing the slightly accusatory, sarcastic tone in Lorelai's voice. "No, Mom, no random kegger hookups. You know that freakish mother/daughter thing Paris was talking about just now? Well, I'd like you to remember that when I tell you this." Sensing Lorelai's consent without having to hear it confirmed, Rory said, "I went to Philadelphia on Sunday."

There were approximately two seconds of dead silence while her mother put the pieces together. Then a sigh could be heard. _"You went to see Jess."_

"Yes."

_"Yes, Jess?"_

"Not _this_ again!"

Lorelai laughed._ "Fine, I'll be nice. However, I reserve the right to mock him to his face, and if the name happens to be the easiest target..."_

"Mom!" After a momentary hesitation, Rory asked, "Are you okay with this?"

_"I'm... I don't know. I haven't seen the guy in two years. People change a lot in two years, and Luke seems to think he's grown up into some kind of decent human being, so I'm going to reserve judgment on him."_

Rory ventured some teasing. "Wow, that's a first!"

_"Hey! I'm not that judgmental!"_

"Whatever you say, Rush Limbaugh."

_"Ouch. I think my democrat street cred took a nosedive just hearing that!"_ Lorelai feigned a hurt tone. Then, resuming her normal voice, she continued, _"So. Jess, huh?"_

"Yep."

_"I gotta be honest, Sweetie, this isn't as much of a surprise as it should be,"_ Lorelai said.

"What do you mean?"

_"You remember when we found the Jess Box last week?"_ At Rory's assent, she explained, _"You should've seen yourself. You were giving 'starry eyed' a whole new definition, especially once you started talking about his book- which, by the way, I just finished."_

Rory grinned. "What did you think?"

_"I think there's a whole lot more going on in that head than it seems."_

"That's what I always said!"

_"And it would seem you were right. I humbly extend my apologies for having doubted your insight and wisdom. So, I want all the details. What happened? You were in Philadelphia at his thingamajig and then what?"_

Rory smiled, leaning back against the headboard of her bed as she settled in for a long chat. Now that she had ascertained that Lorelai didn't intend to freak out, she was more than happy to fill her best friend in on the events of the weekend. "I stayed at the open house pretty much 'til the end, and we were the only two left in Truncheon and we were talking and the kissing just naturally kind of progressed from the talking."

_"There was kissing?"_

"There was a great deal of kissing."

_"Ugh, I shouldn't have asked that. First off, because it's Jess and that kid never could keep his hands off you, and second off because _ewwwwww!"

"Like you have room to talk, after that time I walked in on you and Luke making out on the couch..."

_"Right, got it. From here on out, as far as the other is concerned, we are both totally celibate, totally pure virgins."_

"I don't think it works that way," Rory said.

_"Ugh. I can dream, can't I? So what then?"_

Rory's grin widened as the horrifying, eye-searing memories faded, replaced by happier thoughts. "Jess introduced me to his friends and we pretty much just hung out with them for a few hours."

_"Jess? Friends?"_

"Yes. As hard as it is for you to believe, he has friends. Really cool friends, actually, who really seem to care about him."

_"Wow. That_ is _a tricky concept!"_

"I know. I'm so used to thinking of him as this loner, but it's really nice to see a different side of him."

Lorelai was quiet for a few moments, digesting that. Then she asked, "_Are you happy, kid?"_

"I am," Rory said, her face-splitting grin settling into a smaller, gentler smile. "It's still new. Really new. But, you know, this is _Jess_. Falling for him again would be incredibly easy, and it just seems _right_. He and I click, you know?"

_"Well, as long as you're happy,"_ Lorelai responded, apparently satisfied.

"I am. I really am," Rory assured her, feeling it to be true.


	7. Falling Fast

**A/N-** Okay, so I had promised watram a new chapter of Paperthin Hymn first, but Always is addictive once I start writing it and it gets hard to get it out of my head. Anyway, to those of you who don't get the exchange about the wedding cake... well, you really need to get more familiar with The White Stripes. The picture on Lane and Zach's wedding cake was a Punch Pals (L/Z) reproduction of the cover of one of their albums. And it was AWESOME if I may say so (though it would've been cuter with Dave IMHO).

Extra long chapter this time, because I had a lot to say and the standard two pages wasn't cutting it, so I've extended it a bit. Or... a lot. Beware the fluff, because I think my attempts to distract myself from the suckishness that is Punch Pals led to an excess of Lit fluffiness. But whatever. Next chapter is going to be a serious-conversation sort of chapter. I wanted to keep the fluffy stuff going as long as possible. And as for Jess... well, he's happy, isn't he? And even the Diner Boys can't help but get a bit sappy at weddings. (Remember Luke at his sister's wedding?)

* * *

7. Falling Fast

* * *

_"So what time are you getting here?"_ Rory asked.

Jess held the phone cradled between his ear and his shoulder as he reached for his duffel bag. "Depends on traffic," he said. "Probably noon or so."

_"Good," _she said firmly. _"Because I think any longer than that and I might explode."_

He laughed low. "I take it you'll be happy to see me?"

_"Very,"_ she said seriously.

It had been a weird week. Chris and Matt had been giving him unending grief since meeting Rory, teasing him every time the phone rang (and no, he _wasn't_ jumping to be the first one to pick up the apartment phone. He wasn't!). Since Jacob had returned from his "business trip" (the Truncheon code word for any time one of them had to leave Philadelphia to beg new artists to let them publish, display, or otherwise showcase their work), the mocking had gotten that much worse, with their fourth partner refusing to believe that the reticent Jess had managed to find himself a girlfriend, and Matt and Chris insisting that it was true.

At the same time as all this ridiculing was going on, Jess couldn't help but be elated. Finally, _finally_, he had her back: the girl he had never quite been able to evict from his mind or his heart. It was almost surreal. He was on... well, the odds of Jess Mariano actually ever reaching Cloud 9 were low, but maybe Cloud 8. And a half.

_"Jess? You still there?"_

"What?" He pushed his mind back to the present. "Yeah, I'm here. Just thinking."

_"About which manner of making your entrance will be best to give Kirk a heart attack and Taylor conniptions?"_

"About you," Jess responded, surprising even himself with his honesty. "About us."

_"Good thoughts?"_

Incredibly, her voice sounded a little uncertain. It seemed ludicrous to him. "Yeah. Good thoughts," he assured her. "Listen, I've gotta head out if I'm actually going to get there at twelve."

_"Right. Sorry. I'll see you later."_

Jess nodded. "See you later."

* * *

"Is it normal to be, like, totally nervous?" Lane asked, fussing with the ties on her robe.

"It's totally normal," Rory responded, amazed. Her best friend, the girl she had grown up with, who was practically a sister to her, was getting married. It was like the end of an era. This was a joyfully bittersweet day for both of them.

Then she checked the clock. Realizing that it was now 11:30, Rory felt a bubble of excitement. "Hey, Lane?"

"Mm?"

As her friend looked up from attempting to fasten her headpiece in place (unsuccessfully), Rory said. "Um, I should probably tell you that I'm, uh, bringing a date. To your wedding, I mean."

"A date?"

"Yeah, a date," Rory confirmed.

Lane's brow furrowed. "Didn't you just break up with Logan, like, a month ago? Isn't it a little... fast? To be moving on, I mean?"

Rory shrugged, sitting down beside Lane on the edge of the bed. "It doesn't feel like it. Maybe it should, but it doesn't. I think I fell out of love a long time before we actually broke up. And considering that we were apart for awhile, which I was more or less okay with, it's just... I guess from the outside it looks like that, but I'm pretty sure about Jess."

Lane stabbed herself with a hairpin. "OW! Jess as in _Jess_-Jess?"

"Yes, Jess." Then she made a face. "Ugh. I just had a very horrible flashback to the age of seventeen. I am never going to forgive Mom for that one. Rhyming sucks."

"That it does," Lane agreed solemnly. Then she burst out laughing.

Rory stared at her giggling best friend. "What?"

"I _knew_ it!" the bride-to-be exclaimed. "I knew you and Jess weren't done!"

"What?" Rory asked, taken aback. "How?"

"Call it intuition," Lane said. "Or maybe the fact that no man has ever gotten over you, Jess least of all, or maybe the fact that you never got over him, or maybe the fact that the two of you are perfect for each other."

"Jeez, is _nobody_ surprised that Jess and I are back together?" Rory asked, chagrined. "According to Mom, I was being all starry-eyed about his book, and Paris just said something to the effect of 'it's about time.' Now you, too?" At Lane's shrug, she shook her head. "Okay, got it. No one is surprised. Everyone expected it. We're completely predictable."

Lane shook her head. "I know you, Rory. You're my best friend, and I know you. The only time you don't want to talk about something is if it's a really painful subject for you. You have never, in all the time since Jess bailed back in high school, wanted to hear his name. I knew you weren't over him."

"And you couldn't have _told_ me? It probably would've saved me a lot of trouble if I'd just figured it out sooner!" Rory exclaimed. Then she shook herself, recalling the time and place. "Wow, this is _so_ not the moment to have this conversation. I just figured I should give you a heads up that you'd have one extra guest."

"Guaranteed to make the church even _more _crowded."

"Well, weren't you the one who once labeled me and Jess as agoraphobic?"

"The fact that you remember that is scary. And maybe a little bit romantic."

Rory shrugged. "Right after that, Jess was being incredibly sweet. That whole day is kind of permanently engraved in my head," she said, smiling. Then her beatific expression dropped a little. "Ugh. Still not the moment. Anyway... you're getting married in a couple of minutes!"

"I know," Lane said quietly, voice full of suppressed elation, a half-concealed smile leaking across her face. "I can't believe it!"

"Are you ready?"

The raven-haired girl nodded, studying her exotically made-up profile in the mirror. "I am," she said, and Rory worried that her grin might actually crack her face.

"Okay then, I think I hear the wedding... um... what kind of instrument is that, exactly?"

"That would be a daegeum," Lane explained matter-of-factly. "It's a bamboo flute with a buzzing membrane to give the sound that resonating timbre and... you really don't care that much, do you?"

"Speaking as someone with almost zero musical talent, no I don't," Rory replied teasingly. "Anyway. Wedding daegeum. Music. Sounds. Time to go get married."

Lane squealed giddily and the girls shared a last, jumping hug before descending the stairs to take their places before the exotically arrayed altar.

* * *

After wedding number one, complete with an Emily-vs-Lorelai-style shouting match between Mama Kim and Mama Kim Silver Edition, the guests piled outside to watch the latter be escorted to her taxi. Mrs. Kim watched anxiously as her mother was ferried away; then, as the green and white cab disappeared from sight, she turned back to her guests and screamed, "Go!" Immediately, a mad dash for the church began.

"Hey!" Lorelai exclaimed.

Christopher grabbed her shoulder to keep her from falling to the ground when Lane's heavyset Uncle Bae slammed into her. "What the hell is happening?" he asked.

"Are there bulls coming out of there?"

"We would've heard the china breaking!"

"My god!"

Rory emerged amid the mass of people. "Why aren't you running?" she screeched.

"Why should we be running?" Lorelai asked.

Rory shook her head in exasperation. "To get to the church!"

"Why?"

"For the wedding!"

Christopher's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "I thought this was the wedding!"

"That was the grandmother's wedding," Rory explained, gesturing to the house. "This is the mother's wedding." She pointed towards the church.

"Well, why do we have to run?" Lorelai asked.

"Because! There's 58 seats and 62 Koreans!" Rory half-shouted.

Lorelai gasped and immediately took off, dragging her escort behind her as he slipped and slid across the pavement. Rory was buffeted to the side by another well-proportioned member of the Kim family, and when she regained her balance, a figure beneath Mrs. Kim's maple tree caught her eye. Jess was leaning up against the trunk of the tree, wearing the Mariano approximation of a suit (black jeans and his black blazer), and smirking delectably at her.

Rory felt her knees go weak as she looked at him. Then, somehow, of their own accord, her legs were moving her across the lawn and into his arms. Their lips met in an explosive kiss as she threw her arms around his neck. His hands ran up and down her sides as he pulled her close, deepening the kiss. After a long, intense moment, she broke the kiss. "Hi," she said a little breathlessly.

"You weren't kidding when you said you'd be happy to see me," Jess responded, the smirk returning. Rory, however, noticed that his breathing was a little ragged as well.

"I do tend to be very candid," she deadpanned.

He gave her a quick peck on the lips, then said, "Come on. Let's go watch Lane get married." Placing his hand at the small of her back, he guided her out from under the tree and towards the church. "Should I ask why everyone was running?" he asked, eyes trained on the figures of Sookie and Jackson hurrying up the church steps.

"58 seats, 62 Koreans."

* * *

Jess wound up at the back of the church. His rendezvous with Rory beneath the maple tree had cost him one of the coveted 58 seats, so instead he was standing here in the back. He didn't think he minded terribly, though.

"Hey man," the tall man with the ponytail standing next to him said in a friendly manner.

"Hey." Jess nodded cordially.

"I don't think I've seen you around town," the guy said. "How do you know Lane and Zach?"

Jess shrugged. "I'm actually here for the maid of honor," he explained. "I'm Rory's boyfriend."

The long-haired man nodded, grinning. "Sweet. She's a good kid," he said. "I'm Gil. I'm in the band."

"Jess."

The two shook hands as the wedding march began playing. Mrs. Kim entered the church, smiling pleasantly at everyone she passed. Jess found himself mildly terrified by the sight. Rory entered next. Jess didn't pay attention to much that happened after that.

* * *

As the wedding party emerged from the church some half an hour later in a shower of silk flower petals, Rory glanced around, torn between her maid of honor duties and finding Jess again. She didn't have to look far, though, because he suddenly appeared at her elbow. "Wow, you're _very_ good at showing up out of nowhere!" she exclaimed.

"I wasn't the one who labeled me as the Artful Dodger," he reminded her.

"You remember that?" she asked, amazed. She thought she was the only one who had that night burned into her memory.

"I remember a lot of stuff. That was the conversation was when I first realized I liked you."

He said it so matter-of-factly, she had a hard time wrapping her mind around the magnitude of what it was he'd actually said. "That fast?" she asked, amazed.

He shrugged. "That fast."

"And here I thought it was just me," Rory said. Then, with a laugh, she added, "Of course, the postman in Denialville and I have always been good friends, so it took me a bit longer to admit it, but nevertheless..."

"Gratifying to hear," Jess said with something approximating nonchalance. She thought she could see a genuine grin attempting to break through the smirk. She leaned up and kissed him softly on the lips.

"Come on. Let's go find Mom."

Jess grimaced. "Ah, right, the fearsome Lorelai."

"Hey, she's cool with you now," she responded seriously. "Apparently convincing me to go back to Yale trumps crashing my car. I wouldn't say she _likes_ you now or anything, but I think she'll be willing to keep a much more open mind." With that, she took his hand and lead him across the square to where she'd spotted her parents looking around anxiously.

When they reached the small group, now additionally consisting of Sookie and Jackson, Rory greeted them warmly. "There you guys are! I was very proud of the lack of heckling coming from your section."

"Yeah yeah, we were real good, now where's the bar?" Lorelai demanded.

Rory threw a nervous look over her shoulder at the Kim clan. "Shh, don't say that so loud!" she pleaded.

Lorelai's eyes widened. "What? No! No way! No bar? Are you kidding?"

"Mom," Rory warned.

"What? They don't have to drink it!" Rory shook her head tiredly and glanced at Jess, who gave her an amused look. At that moment, Lorelai's attention was distracted from getting liquored up quick and focused onto Jess. "Oh, hi Jess," she said. "Long time no see."

Jess shrugged. "Hey."

"Monosyllabic as ever, I see."

"Only when I feel like it. It's been awhile. Hey Sookie. Jackson." Jess gave a courteous nod in the direction of the couple. Sookie waved excitably, while Jackson only nodded distractedly, presumably still stewing over the too-perfect babysitter.

At that moment, Christopher interjected, "Hey, am I missing something? Are you required to bring a date, too, Ror? Where's Logan?"

Rory sighed. She didn't particularly want to have to think about Logan today. "Logan and I split up a month ago, Dad," she said tiredly. Gossip spread quickly in the society circle. It would've been nice if, just this once, her father had paid attention to it. "This is my boyfriend, Jess Mariano. Jess, my father, Christopher Hayden."

Chris nodded. "Nice to meet you, Jess," he responded, sticking out his hand. Warily, Jess nodded in response and reciprocated the gesture and the two men shook hands. "You wouldn't happen to be the same Jess who broke my daughter's arm all those years ago, would you?"

Rory winced. "Dad," she said warningly.

"Okay, fine, I'll be nice," he said, smiling warmly at his daughter. Then he turned back to Jess. "Tell me, Jess, what do you do?"

"I co-own a bookstore and art gallery with a few of my friends."

Rory, still holding Jess hand, could feel his palm beginning to grow a little sweaty. He was nervous. She squeezed his hand reassuringly and smiled at him. "Jess is also a publisher and an author," she interjected.

"Barely," he snorted.

"No, not barely," Lorelai said firmly, surprising everyone. "I read your book. It was amazing. I think between Rory and me, we own about five copies."

Jess looked taken aback. "Um, thanks," he said.

At that moment, they heard Kirk shouting, "Alright, Mrs. Kim is back inside! Coast is clear! Come get your alcohol, people! We've got beer, we've got wine, we've got cocktails, whatever suits your fancy, all served by truly yummy bartenders!"

"Ooh, bar!" Lorelai exclaimed. She grabbed Christopher's hand and dragged him bodily towards the gaggle of attractive young men Kirk had surrounded himself with. Sookie and Jackson tailed them closely, leaving Rory and Jess standing on the sidewalk alone.

Jess let out a barely perceptible sigh of relief. "You okay?" she asked.

He nodded. "Yeah. Your dad is... yeah. I just wasn't expecting Meet The Parents night."

"Sorry," she said with a grimace. "Dad being here was sort of last-minute. Mrs. Kim told Mom she couldn't show up without a man or her guests would think she was Jenna Jameson and with Luke out of town... I should've warned you when you got here."

He shrugged. "No big deal. Besides, Lorelai was unexpectedly nice. Have you been drugging her again?"

"Nope, that was all her. I told you she's cool with you."

"So, want to go get some leftover vegan food?"

"Naturally. Why do you think I came back to the Hollow?"

"I suppose it had nothing to do with me," Rory teased as he slung his arm around her waist.

"No, absolutely nothing," he deadpanned, pulling her closer to him.

* * *

"Rory, your father has something he wants to tell you," Lorelai said, grinning maniacally.

Christopher gave her a greatly exaggerated apologetic face. "Yes, I just want to apologize for my Sidekick stalking. I realize now that I have a problem."

"And that, my friend, is the first step to recovery," Lorelai added. "The second step is that he's now giving the Sidekick to me!"

"No!" Rory exclaimed, horrified, as Lorelai laughed evilly. "That's worse!"

"Hi Rory! What are you doing what are you wearing what are you thinking what about now do you miss me do you think I'm pretty where do babies come from?" Lorelai demonstrated, babbling at the speed of light as she mimed texting.

"Aaaaand she's back," Jess muttered under his breath, hiding a grin.

As she elbowed her boyfriend in the side, Rory shot an angry look at her father. "Thanks a lot, mister."

Lane and Zach bounced up, Zach once again wearing his robe. "Hey!" Lane exclaimed, beaming.

"Hi! Kudos on the hot dogs by the way," Jackson said.

"Zach's idea," Lane said, grinning.

"Lane came up with the fries, though," Zach added.

"You guys are so perfect together," Lorelai said.

The excited couple smiled, before Lane turned to Jess and said, "Hi Jess. Haven't seen you in awhile!"

He shook his head. "People keep saying that, I don't know what they're talking about. I come back to this town all the time," he said sarcastically.

"Sure," Lane said, matching him smirk for smirk. "But I'm glad you were here. Somehow, it just wouldn't have been quite the perfect wedding without Kirk fainting from shock when you showed up to rescue Rory from his 'yummy bartenders' inquisition."

Brian chose that moment to call over from the adjacent table, "You're lucky he's so scared of you or he'd probably try to turn you into one of the yummy bartenders!" Everyone looked at him strangely and there was a moment of confused silence. Brian didn't appear to notice and instead went back to chatting up Kyon. Zach turned away from his friend and shook his head, a disturbed look on his face. Jess looked equally freaked out and was only placated when Rory put her hand on his leg under the table.

"I, uh, cool cake," he said, in an attempt to take his mind off the sensation of her hand creeping up his leg. It was a valiant effort, if not entirely successful. "Get Behind Me Satan, right?"

Lane nodded, then glanced at Rory. "Thank god you've finally got a man who gets the reference."

Rory grinned. "Jess has always been known as a man of good taste," she said lightly.

"I picked you, didn't I?"

Rory froze and looked up at him. "Wow," she said, taken aback. "That might be the sweetest thing you've ever said to me."

He leaned in to kiss her softly, and Rory found herself grinning madly into the kiss. She was losing her heart to this man, faster than she would have believed possible.

A throat cleared across the table and Christopher said, "Uh, excuse me, parental units at the table!"

Still smiling, Rory pulled away slowly from Jess, hand nevertheless lingering on his forearm. "Sorry Dad," she said, eyes not leaving Jess and his smug expression and her thoughts only barely doing so for a moment.

"Anyway, we just wanted to make the rounds before we're too toasted to remember who you are," Zach interjected, pulling Rory out of the little world she and Jess had managed to build.

"Hey, I want to take a picture of everyone with Lane and Zach!" Rory exclaimed. Lorelai and Jess groaned simultaneously. "What?" Rory demanded. "Come on, get in the picture." Once she had the camera trained and focused, she commanded, "Say cheese!" The assembled group did so and Rory snapped a photo. Surveying the result on the screen of her digital camera, she smiled. Lane, Zach, Sookie, Jackson and her father were all smiling, with the newlyweds beaming brightest in the center, while Lorelai was cross-eyed and Jess was, predictably, smirking.

"Okay, well, we have six more tables to hit," Lane said, trying not to giggle as her new husband kissed her on the cheek. "If we forget to say it later, we are_ really_ glad you came!" The couple said their goodbyes and scurried off to greet the next batch of guests.

As Christopher excused himself to go get another drink, Lorelai laid a hand on the camera, demanding, "Let me see the picture."

"No! You'll delete it."

"Not if it's good!"

"You erase every picture I take of you!" Rory insisted.

Lorelai protested, "No, only the ones where I look like Rhoda!"

"You _never_ look like Rhoda."

"Occasionally I look like Rhoda."

"Fine, here." Rory handed over the camera.

Flicking through the catalogue of photos, Lorelai grinned. "Wow, you have a lot of pictures."

"Well I like proof, okay?"

"W-wait, go back! Who's that?" Lorelai demanded suddenly, pointing at a picture of Rory standing next to a dark-haired, bespectacled preteen.

Leaning over her shoulder to see the picture, Jess nodded. "That would be April," he said.

"Oh." Lorelai's voice was full of surprise and hurt. "When did you guys meet April?"

"At the open house last week," Rory responded.

"So... you met April? You took a picture together, like... like you're pals?"

Rory sighed. "I swear, Mom, it was a crazy coincidence. I'm sorry I didn't tell you but I just, I felt so weird about it."

"It's okay. I get it." Her tone was disappointed, though.

"Look, it's not like Luke was trying to introduce her to me. I walked in, they were there."

"Yeah. Right. Okay. With Luke."

"Are you okay?"

Lorelai nodded. "Yeah. Fine. I, uh, I'm gonna go get another drink. Do you want anything?" When Rory shook her head, Lorelai nodded. "Okay. I'll be right back."

Once she was out of earshot, Jess looked at Rory, eyes speaking of his concern even though the rest of his expression was relatively calm. "What was _that_?"

Rory sighed again. "Luke has been... weird... about April. Not introducing the two of them. It's just very... weird. I mean, naturally he's freaked out by the whole thing, but I think Mom's really hurting. And it's worse that I just don't know if there's anything I can do to fix it. And even if there were, I doubt Mom would let me."

"Luke and Lorelai are... well, they're Luke and Lorelai," Jess reassured her. "Even I could see that they had a _thing_ way back when. They'll be okay. But maybe I'll talk to Luke anyway."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

Jess shrugged. "Luke spent a lot of time knocking sense into me when I was acting like a moron. The least I can do is repay the favor."

She nodded. At that moment, Lorelai returned and proceeded to down tequila.

* * *

Rory was smiling softly, nodding her head in time to the beat of the strains of a slow, melodic Nico song. Jess thought she had rarely looked as beautiful as she did tonight. Acting on sheer impulse, he suddenly found himself blurting out, "You wanna dance?"

She turned to look at him, an expression of bemused curiosity on her face. "Jeez, aren't you just a regular sap tonight?" she teased, but she stood up nonetheless.

"Careful, Gilmore. I can still rescind that offer," he cautioned. Then he shrugged. "Blame it on the wedding atmosphere. They do things to you." He thought back to his mother's wedding, and the outcome of the melancholy and longing it had awakened in him. Tonight would have a much happier ending.

"I would love to dance. Thank you," she accepted, taking his hand.

Once the reached the space at the center of the ring of tables where a group of couples were dancing to the hypnotic sounds of the famous alto's music. As Jess placed his hand at her waist, the song changed. Rory smiled as the familiar chords of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" echoed across the town square. "Good song," Jess whispered in her ear as they began to sway.

"It is," she agreed, smiling over his shoulder.

Together they got lost in the music, and Jess got lost in the feeling of holding her in his arms. This moment, tonight, was everything he could have hoped for. There had been a time he had feared he would never get to hold her like this again, but here she was. Her head came to rest on his shoulder and he leaned his cheek in her hair, holding back the sigh of contentment.

It was official. He was a goner. The worst part was, he didn't think he minded.

* * *

Eventually, the song ended and Rory was called upon to make the traditional maid of honor's toast, which she did with grace and anecdotes aplenty. Trouble, however, announced itself in the form of a hammered Lorelai, who seized the microphone and began making the most horrifying wedding toast ever presented.

"Hello, everybody. Hello. Some of you know me as Lorelai Gilmore and some of you know me as Cher, but either way, I wanted to say a few words about our girl. I have known Lane forever, and I am just so incredibly happy that she has gotten married. I mean, I am just so happy that this adorable twenty-two year old girl has gotten married. Because, it's amazing, you know? It's really hard to get married. Believe me. I should know. I mean, seriously, because Lane is married, and next thing it'll be my daughter and then my granddaughter, but not me. My little Rory will get married to her hoodlum, after all those years of being hung up on him, which is good. Not the hung up part, but the married part. But me? Nah."

Jess and Rory exchanged a nervous look, then Rory turned to look at Christopher, jerking her head toward the stage to indicate that they should do something.

"I'm not getting married. No, it ain't for me, it's not in the cards. But hey, do you know what date I'm _not_ getting married? June third," Lorelai continued. "Do not save the date. Do you hear me? Do whatever you want on June third, because there's nothing at all happening on that day. If there's anything you need to book, or anything, it's totally safe to book it on June third, so. Congratulations, Lane! And Zach!" The married couple stared at her as though she'd grown a third head.

"Who else here had eight shots of tequila? Anybody? Hands? No. Oh my gosh, who misses the Yummy Bartenders? I _know_, me too! They were so great. I was going to ask them to _not_ work on June third on my _not_ wedding. I just thought that would be _so_ fun."

At that moment, Christopher and Rory reached her. "Hi! Chris! Hi Rory! Hi," she cooed, sounding very, very out of it.

"How about some coffee?" Rory suggested cajolingly.

"What? Okay, well, I guess we're going over here now," Lorelai said. "Bye!"

Lane and Zach glanced at each other, both with apprehensive looks on their faces.

"Totally perfect wedding," Zach said finally, breaking first. Lane's smile broke through the facade and the two kissed happily.

Jess looked on, smirking as per usual, but underneath, he was worried.

* * *

They eventually managed to corral Lorelai and herd her back to the Crap Shack. Once they had gotten a few more cups of coffee in her, along with a glass of water, she dropped into a deep state of unconsciousness.

After Christopher carried her upstairs and settled her in her bed, he returned to the ground floor. "Well, I uh... I guess I should go," he said, almost like a question.

"I guess so," Rory said, hugging him.

"I'll see you soon, okay?"

"Yeah."

They broke the hug, Christopher nodded to Jess, then said goodnight and departed the premises, leaving the pair in the living room in darkness and nervous silence.

Jess was the first one to break it. "So... that was quite a toast your mother gave," he said.

"Yeah," Rory said. "Very... yeah."

"Articulate, are we?" Jess teased

"Shut up." After a moment, in a sober voice, Rory asked, "So is this when we... deal with it? All the history we really need to get out of the way?"

"Seems as good a time as any to get the giant smoking elephant out of the room," Jess responded with a shrug.

* * *

**A/N2-** To all you diabetics out there: I am sorry about the sugar coma I put you in. To all you non-diabetics out there: go buy some insulin, because you no longer fall into the non-diabetic category.

Sorry guys. I'm not quite sure why it came out so ridiculously fluffy (in my eyes, at least). But I think some fluffy was in order. Plus, my next youngest cousin just got married (oh god, I'm the only one of my cousins without a ring now...) and he and his wife are so freaking adorable together and I think having witnessed that made me extra-sappy. Whatever. Next chapter is the serious talk. We can take a little fluff in the meantime.


	8. Serious

**A/N-** Huh. This chapter came out different than I expected. Whatever. It's fine. It's also a bit fluffy towards the end, mainly because I'm on vacation and I get in a sappy mood when I get so far north... Shorter than last one, but a lot is said, so whatever.

* * *

8. Serious

* * *

"Okay, so where do we start?" Rory asked, feeling apprehensive.

Jess shook his head. "I would say at the beginning, but I'm not really sure where that is, so..."

"Actually," Rory said, "I think I do." She took a deep breath. Might as well take the plunge and get it over with. "I'm sorry I didn't write to you that summer. I don't think I ever apologized for that, so... this is me, officially apologizing. I wanted to contact you, but everything I wrote down just sounded stupid. I stared at that piece of paper all summer and... nothing."

"Really?" Jess asked, looking taken aback.

She nodded.

"Huh." He looked a little smug in retrospect. "Well, in that case, I guess it's my turn to apologize for lying to you. That black eye the night I met your grandmother?"

"It wasn't from a football."

"Yeah," Jess confirmed, looking surprised at her matter-of-fact tone. "You knew?"

She shrugged. "You're not as hard to read as you think. I could tell you were lying through your teeth, but I figured it wouldn't do a lot of good to press the issue. _Now_, however..." She left the question hanging, waiting for him to fill her in. Jess pretended to study his fingernails, pointedly ignoring her opening.

Rory grinned at his carefully crafted I-don't-know-what-you're-implying expression. "What exactly did happen?" she finally asked.

"I was attacked by a, um... bird."

A devilish glint entered her eyes. "What kind of bird?"

"Swan," he mumbled, flushing scarlet.

"You poor thing," Rory teased, fighting a grin.

"Here comes the mocking," he sighed.

She fought to compose her expression. "No, no mocking. Tonight is serious conversation time. Tomorrow, though..."

Jess ran a hand over his face resignedly. "Okay," he said, sounding apprehensive. "If we're going chronologically, then I guess we have to talk about, uh, me leaving."

"I knew," Rory said sadly. "I knew on the bus that you were leaving, and I didn't say a word. I guess I just wanted to believe so badly that you would be back that I just couldn't bring myself to ask."

"I wanted to say something," he said. "But I was afraid you'd ask me to stay. If you had... I would have. I couldn't have made myself go if you'd asked me not to. And I _had _to go. Everything was just so fucked up. I had flunked out of high school, Luke had kicked me out, and-"

"And your father showed up," Rory finished. "Luke said something to that effect."

Jess nodded. "Meeting Jimmy and getting to know him was something I really needed."

Rory shook her head wonderingly. "I can't imagine that," she said. "Not meeting your father until just then... wow. I mean, my father has never really been around, but at least I knew what he looked like."

"Jimmy's a pretty cool guy. He's got a record collection that would make Lane very willing to commit mass murder," Jess said with a little half-smirk. Then his expression turned sober again. "Staying with him and his girlfriend for a couple of months was good for me. I officially hate California, but something about being there calmed me down."

"I'm glad you had that, then," Rory said. "It hurt, though. At the time, I had no clue why you left. You didn't even say goodbye. For awhile I thought maybe... maybe it was because of what happened at that party, in Kyle's bedroom."

Jess face registered pain that Rory was sure was mirrored in her own face. Even with all the years in between, she still didn't like thinking about the night their relationship came tumbling down. "I hate thinking about that night," Jess said. "I acted like a moron."

"You did," she agreed. "But I didn't handle the situation too well, either."

"Yeah, well, I was the one who was freaked out and used it as an excuse to try to push you into something you weren't ready for," Jess countered.

"I was ready," Rory said. "That's the sick thing about it. I had told Mom I was thinking about it. We had gone and gotten me the pill and everything." Jess' mouth dropped open. "I wanted you to be my first."

"Just... not like that," Jess said slowly. "Not in some random guy's bedroom."

"Exactly."

"I still shouldn't have pressed you," he insisted. "I was happy just to be able to kiss you. It was driving me crazy, but it was enough. I shouldn't have pressured you for more." He took her hand, rubbing his thumb across the back of her hand in slow circles. "And just so you know," he said after a long moment, "What happened that night had _nothing_ to do with me leaving. It might have helped my non-decision to not say goodbye, but I think I would have left even if that night had never happened."

Rory studied him. "Is it weird that that actually makes me feel kind of better about all that?" At Jess' shrug, she felt she had to ask, "What I want to know is, why didn't you just talk to me? Why didn't you just tell me you weren't graduating?"

"Because I was ashamed. Here you were, graduating top of your class from one of the most prestigious prep schools on the East Coast, Ivy League bound, and I couldn't even make it through public high school. I knew you wanted me to graduate and make something of myself, and when I couldn't... I don't know. I wasn't really thinking too straight."

She squeezed his hand. "But you had to have known I wouldn't care about that. I would've supported you anyway."

"I know that now," he said, then fell silent.

Rory could see that there was something he wasn't saying. His statement had been a little too clipped, like he had cut part of it off for fear of offending her. "Jess? What is it?"

"Nothing," he brushed off. "It's not important anymore."

"I want to know," she insisted. "We need to do this, Jess. We need to learn from our mistakes if we're going to make this work."

Jess chewed his lower lip thoughtfully for a second before saying carefully, "Back then, there were times when it felt like you were just... with me by default. You always seemed like you cared more about Dean's hurt feelings than about me. And you were only with me after he pretty much forced us together at the dance thing."

Rory felt tears pricking at her eyes. "Oh Jess," she said sadly. "I never knew you felt that way. I'm so sorry." She took his face in her hands and kissed him softly. Then she settled back, leaning her head on his shoulder. After a moment, she said, "I guess it was always so obvious to me, I didn't even think you might not understand."

"Understand what?"

"The way I feel about you," she explained. "It's terrifying to me. The feelings I have for you are different than with anyone else I've ever dated. It scares me how much I care about you. In the past it's made me... hesitant. I think, looking back, I just didn't want to get hurt, so I hurt you, instead. Except that ended up hurting me anyway. I don't like seeing you hurt."

Jess stared at her, humbled by her words. Ever so carefully, he put his arm around her shoulder and kissed her temple softly. "It's the same for me," he said quietly.

"That's good to know," she responded, equally quietly.

For several minutes they simply sat like that in silence, trying to process everything they had learned about each other. Jess watched her discreetly, amazed by what she'd revealed. He was secretly thrilled to know that she felt the same way as he did. Rory, for her part, was just happy to get lost in the feeling of Jess' arms around her.

Eventually, though, she felt compelled to ask, "So, is there anything else we need to haul out of our own personal skeleton cupboard?"

"Um... Yale?" Jess suggested, grimacing. "Better known as the most embarrassing memory I own?"

"Worse than the swan?" she asked, not really interested in thinking about that night, and all the stupid things that came after.

"Way worse," he said. She didn't respond, and so he took the opportunity to say, "I know you couldn't have come with me. I had to do something, though. I was miserable without you. And then I saw Dean there and... I don't know... I just panicked and said all the wrong things."

"I understand," she assured him. "I wanted to say yes, you know. If it had just been a question of you and me, I might have. But I had to think about school and Mom and..."

"I get it."

"Just another great example of me pushing you away because I was afraid of my own feelings," she said sadly. "I felt so awful afterwards, because I could see your heart breaking and I didn't say a word. I should've done something. I should've made you stay, or at least talked things out with you so that maybe we could've gotten here sooner." She sighed. "Instead I went out and did the very worst thing I could've possibly done."

Jess shook his head. "Dean."

She stared at him. "You know about that?"

"Not the details. But I do talk to Luke occasionally, and he was in need of a good rant. I went out and got very, very drunk that night."

Rory kept her eyes glued to her hands, twisted up in her lap. "I'm sorry it hurt you. That entire relationship- no, you know what? It wasn't a relationship. Even after he divorced Lindsay, it was still an affair, not a relationship- that entire affair was so sick and pathetic and I hate myself for letting it happen at all. But I'm especially sorry that it hurt you."

Jess nodded, and the reassuring brush of his lips against her hair let her know that he was over it. "So, Dean, and the Logan guy I met. Anybody else?"

She shook her head. "Nope. That's all."

"If you don't mind me asking, what ended up happening with Blondie?"

Rory sighed. "After you left us at the bar that night in Hartford, we had a huge fight. Started out about you, moved on to other things. He left, decided we were broken up, and didn't bother to inform me. About a month later, he helped me save the Daily News after Paris accidentally forced the entire staff to quit and in all the excitement, I let him charm his way back in. I think by that point, I'd already fallen out of love with him, but I was lonely, and Logan is very persuasive when he wants something. A little after that, I went with him to his sister's wedding, and had the lovely experience of finding out that he'd slept with every single member of the wedding party while we were not-broken-up. Well, except for his sister and the men, obviously. But he'd slept with every woman several times between Thanksgiving weekend and December. So I broke up with him."

"Charming." Jess grimaced. "I can't imagine any guy stupid enough to want anyone else if he has you."

Rory shrugged. "It happened. It sucked. But I'm with you now, and that whole period of my life is over." She paused, then looked up at him and asked, "What about you, Jess? Has there been anybody...?"

"A one night stand with a cocktail waitress about two months after our encounter at Yale," he said. "I was drunk out of my mind and lonely as hell. But if you mean any actual relationships... no."

He didn't come out and say it, but Rory understood what he was implying. His eyes said it all too clearly: there hadn't been anyone else because he'd been waiting for her. Tears filled her eyes as she realized this. "Oh Jess," she whispered. She kissed him hard, then broke away to bury her face in his neck, hugging him tightly. Jess held her close and they both relaxed into the embrace, allowing their physical closeness to ease away the wounds of the past.

Rory loved the feel of his arms around her. That was something about Jess she'd always liked- his desire for physical intimacy. He loved kissing (and he was good at it, too). But it wasn't just about kissing and sex. He just genuinely seemed to want to be close to her. Whenever they'd been together, he would have his arm around her, or he would sit close enough so that their sides were pressed together, and lately he seemed to really enjoy holding her hand. She remembered him unconsciously playing with her hair, or idly rubbing her arm. Sometimes he seemed almost childlike in his desire to give and receive affection, and she loved that about him.

After what felt like an hour of simply lying on the couch, holding each other tightly, Jess saw fit to break the silence. "So to recap, we both suck and we're _great_ at hurting each other." She looked up at him and saw the less-than-serious smirk. "Remind me why we're doing this again?"

"Smartass," she said, poking him in the chest.

"You like it."

She smiled contentedly, settling herself against him. "Yeah, I do," she said, smiling. Then she let out a little laugh. "Well look at us, having a real grownup talk and being all mature about this stuff! Who'd have thought?"

"Guess we're not so bad at communication after all," Jess mused.

Rory kissed his jaw softly. "Thank you," she said. "I know talking about all this emotional stuff isn't really your forte. Thank you for letting me in."

"I want this to work," he told her seriously. "If that means really saying what's on my mind once in awhile..." He shrugged.

"This will work," Rory said, feeling very sure of it. "I'm in this."

Jess' only response was to pull her a little closer.

* * *

**A/N2-** Okay, don't expect any more updates on ANYTHING until at least Friday, because I'm on vacation and then I'm working and then I'm at ANOTHER wedding and then I might have time to write some. I've got another chapter partway finished, but IDK if there will be wifi where I'm going next...


	9. Sunday

**A/N-** It's been awhile for this one, hasn't it? But I think Blizzards and Broken Hearts was worth it, honestly. (To any of you who haven't read that... go do it! It's awesomesauce!) This chapter was kind of weird, but overall I'm reasonably happy with it. I basically just felt the need to update since all the good Lit fics got updated a couple days ago and now all that's on the lists is Rogan, JJ, and a couple of starter Lits that have a lot of potential but are still too short to keep me busy for long, and I really felt the need to break up the Logan-loving a little.

* * *

9. Sunday

* * *

Rory woke up with an atrocious crick in her neck. She shifted a little, felt the warm weight of an arm around her shoulders, and opened her eyes only to realize that she and Jess had fallen asleep cuddling on the couch. Despite the twisting pain in her muscles, Rory couldn't help but smile.

Her movement seemed to have awakened him, and he let out a low groan, bringing a hand up to his own neck. "Please tell me we didn't fall asleep on the sofa," he mumbled without opening his eyes.

"'Fraid so," Rory responded.

"And here I thought I was done with crashing in people's living rooms," Jess sighed.

"Definitely not the most comfortable sleeping arrangements," she agreed. "No amount of coffee can truly erase the feeling of having fallen asleep in your clothes."

Jess nodded, a sour expression crossing his face as he discovered the stiffness in his shoulders. "Speaking of which, I'm gonna go grab my stuff. Do you mind if I use your shower?"

"Go ahead," Rory responded. "It's the second door on your right at the top of the stairs. Don't worry about waking Mom; when she's hungover, she sleeps like the dead. I'll make bacon and order tacos."

Jess raised an eyebrow in question.

"Tacos are the ultimate hangover food," Rory said, as though this were obvious. "And I want bacon. Maybe bacon _in_ tacos..."

"I think I agree with Luke," he said, shaking his head with a smirk firmly in place. "You Gilmores are a little sickening with your eating habits."

"Why thank you," Rory said, grinning madly. Then her face slipped into a softer smile. "Good morning," she said.

"Good morning to you too," Jess replied, kissing her sweetly.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Jess appeared in the kitchen, hair still wet and Stereophonics t-shirt clinging to his slightly damp torso. Rory did not mind in the slightest.

"So you really weren't kidding about the tacos," he said, a hint of wonderment in his voice as he surveyed the spread Rory had set out on the kitchen table. He came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder as she made a very distracted attempt at turning over the bacon.

"Nope, not kidding," she responded. "And I've got bacon and scrambled eggs for those of us who _didn't_ have eleven shots of tequila last night."

"I didn't know you could cook," Jess said.

"People do tend to lump me together with Mom in that department," she conceded. "And I'm definitely not Luke or Sookie, but I can manage simple stuff. Eggs and bacon? No problem."

She felt Jess' smiling lips on her neck. "Learn something new every day," he said in a low, sarcastic voice as he kissed along the column of her neck.

"Careful, Mr. Mariano. If you don't want to be responsible for yet another Gilmore Kitchen disaster, you'd better hold off on distracting me until the bacon is safely out of the pan," she said breathily, holding back a giggle as his tongue swept across a ticklish place. He responded by simply moving his attentions to the other side of her neck.

Somehow, Rory managed to get the bacon onto a plate and the pan drained of grease without any serious mishaps, and she and Jess sat down to eat, exchanging lighthearted banter of the usual variety. An hour later, when Lorelai slumped downstairs, their dishes had been piled in the sink and the two were still sitting at the kitchen table, engaged in a debate over the merits of microwave popcorn versus the stovetop kind.

"Your voices are too loud," Lorelai groaned, laying her head on the table.

"Sorry," Jess said, too amused for his apology to sound genuine.

"Tacos are in the microwave, I'll just reheat them for you. Aspirin is next to your face. Orange juice is about two inches from your left hand," Rory informed her, as though this was a routine occurrence. It wasn't, normally, but Rory was a quick study (and she had to admit, having dealt with Logan, Colin and Finn on a routine basis was excellent preparation for a hungover Lorelai).

The distinct taco-y smell as the microwave heated them seemed to revive the elder Gilmore somewhat, at least enough for her to sit up, take the aspirin with the orange juice (which in and of itself was surprising, given her aversion to fruits of all kinds), and observe the laughing couple sitting across from her. Lorelai devoured the tacos, with various accompanying noises of appreciation and slight nausea, then stood up. "Rory, come upstairs with me, I need your opinion on hangover clothes."

"What?"

"Sweats or PMS jeans?"

Ignoring Jess' groan, Rory said, "I really don't think you need my opinion to make that decision."

"But in my current state, how will I possibly pick out the appropriate attire for today?"

Rory rolled her eyes, but stood up nonetheless. "In case you forgot, you do have work today. The Casher family reunion is coming in today, remember?"

Lorelai gasped melodramatically. "Well that adds a whole other layer of choices, thus making my problem that much worse!" she groaned. "Please, baby girl? Help a friend out?"

"Fine," Rory sighed. She leaned down and left Jess a lingering kiss. "I'll be right back." He nodded, and she followed her mother out of the room.

Once they were out of sight, Lorelai pushed Rory up the stairs as quickly as Rory's bunny slippers and Lorelai's dizziness would allow. "What the...? What are you _doing_?" Rory demanded, but Lorelai refused to speak until she had pushed her into the master bedroom and closed the door securely behind them.

"Oh my god!" Lorelai exclaimed. "Did you sleep with Jess?"

Rory was completely taken aback. "What? I... no, we didn't!"

Lorelai's eyebrows drew down in confusion. "Wait, you _didn't_?"

"Nope."

"Then why's he looking at you like... well, _you _know. All lovey and like he wants to devour you and stuff."

Rory groaned. "Oh my _god_."

Lorelai shook her head, amazed, then closed her eyes tightly for a second, having forgotten the hangover headache which the aspirin had as yet not touched. When she recovered her balance, she said, "The guy was all over you down there!"

"Since when has Jess ever been good with personal space?" Rory asked rhetorically.

"Good point. Seriously, though, what did you _do_ to him? He's practically wrapped around your little finger! I noticed it last night, too. He was being all sappy, which is especially weird because it's _Jess_, but even by normal-person standards he was being pretty sweet with you. Only this morning it's, like, a thousand times _worse_! What did you _do_?"

Rory shrugged. "Nothing. We just talked."

"About _what_?"

"We went through all the history and talked it through. Apologized for all the stupid stuff we did to each other back then, tried to figure out how to avoid making the same mistakes again."

Lorelai shook her head wonderingly. "That is so much weirder when you realize it means that Jess talked that much."

Rory smiled softly. "He really opened up to me, Mom. And you know what? He's the same Jess he's always been. Just better at the verbal thing." She was quiet for a moment, still smiling happily.

"This thing with you and him is serious, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I think it is. I mean, I want it to be. He seems to want that, too." Her happy expression grew as she contemplated it. "The two of us... I think it's kind of an all-or-nothing thing. It was a big part of the reason why we didn't work out the first time: we were both too scared of our feelings to really be in it all the way, and that didn't work. We're going to be better this time."

Lorelai sighed, partly from the thumping in her skull, and partly from her mixed feelings about this new/old relationship. "I'm happy for you," she said. "But Rory? Please be careful." At Rory's outraged expression, Lorelai quickly cut her off. "I know, I know. He's grown up, things are different. But when the two of you didn't work out the first time around, it just about killed you, didn't it? At the time, I really just wanted to believe that you were fine, that Jess was a jerk and it was no big deal, but looking back? It just seems like you were never really quite okay after that."

"I really don't think I was," Rory said quietly. "I did a good job faking it, because I didn't want you to be worried and hate him even more than you already did, but I just felt like some big part of me was missing. Eventually I even started to believe that I was fine, but looking back, everything just kept falling more to pieces as time went on, and it wasn't until Jess came back and told me what an idiot I was being that I started to get better."

Lorelai nodded. "I get that. Now." She let out her breath in a huff. "That being said, I am fully, one hundred percent on the Jess bandwagon now, okay? It's kind of cute, actually, now that he's willing to say more than two words at a time. Even your dad noticed."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. While you two were dancing, he and I were trying to get plastered and he started asking all about Jess and what the deal with you two was."

"Oh? What did you tell him?"

Lorelai shrugged. "The edited version of your history. You dated, Jess went to California to find himself, there was never really any closure, now you're back together."

"And what did Dad have to say to that?" As pathetic as it was, as little involvement as Christopher had in her life, Rory was really hoping for both of her parents to support her in this. Though they had really only been dating a short while, she had known Jess for years, and as she had told Lorelai, this was serious. Something about Jess was just special, and she wanted this to be right.

"He mostly just grunted and said you made a cute couple," Lorelai said. "I didn't really give him a whole lot to work with."

Rory held back a sigh. "Okay," she said. "Well, that's good, I think. I guess I'm just worried because, well, he really liked Logan. And I don't blame him; they had a lot in common." Her expression grew slightly bewildered and she said, as if realizing it for the first time, "Actually, I think that's a big part of the reason I fell so hard for Logan. He reminded me of Dad. Except now Dad's gone and gotten attached, and I'm worried he won't give Jess a chance because he'll always think Logan was better."

"Would it matter?"

"No," Rory said firmly. Then she glanced down at the floor, worry seeping into her voice. "I just really want everyone to get along."

Lorelai put an arm around her shoulder, rubbing her arm comfortingly. "I know, Sweets. I know." At the cessation of Rory's frown, Lorelai encouraged, "Now, go on, go see your lover-boy and leave me here to figure out what the hell I'm going to wear today."

"Need any wardrobe advice?" Rory asked. "You know, since that was your _very_ believable excuse to get me alone?"

"Nah, I've got it. If I get stumped, I'm sure I can ask all those pink elephants from last night."

* * *

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Jess asked, his hand finding hers almost the instant they stepped out on the porch. Rory had to fight to suppress her grin.

"I was thinking Andrew's," she suggested. "I've been looking for a new copy of Gods and Generals."

Jess raised an eyebrow. "Shaara?"

"That's the one."

"Should I ask why you need a _new_ copy?"

Rory shrugged. "My old one fell apart."

"_How_?" he asked incredulously.

"Why so surprised?"

"Well, firstly, you take ridiculously good care of your books, and secondly, Gods and Generals is a bore."

Rory feigned a horror-struck expression. "How can you say such a thing?" she gasped, dropping his hand.

"Don't get me wrong, I loved The Killer Angels as much as anybody else. It's a masterwork, and nobody with an IQ higher than a boulder's would say otherwise. But Gods and Generals just drags on and on and on and it never actually goes anywhere! Jeff Shaara is trying _way_ too hard to be his father! I get that it's a prequel to his father's book, but it's just ridiculous! He should have written it naturally, rather than trying to imitate everything his dad did. I mean, jeez, is it too much to ask for a little original thought?"

Rory bit her lip to keep from laughing out loud at the outraged expression on his face. Once she'd suppressed the urge, she gave him a cool look and said, in an extremely serious voice, "I can't believe you just said that. How can you criticize a novel with such a sharp depiction of General Lee?"

"A sharp depiction which was only achieved by using concepts already laid out for him in The Killer Angels. I say again: where's his creativity? He was just riding his dad's coattails!"

"Just for that, I should refuse to speak to you," Rory said, still playing the part of the offended literatus.

Jess opened his mouth to defend his point again, looking annoyed, but before he could speak, Rory lost her self-control and broke down laughing. "I... can't believe you... fell for that..." she gasped, almost bending over she was laughing so hard.

He stared at her for a long moment, and then he was laughing too, that happy, childlike laughter she had only had the good fortune to coax out of him a handful of times. Rory took several deep breaths, trying to calm herself so that she could enjoy the moment, watching him laugh like this, so unrestrained and joyful. It always gave her a happy tingling feeling, knowing that she could make Jess Mariano laugh.

When both of them had gotten themselves back under control, Rory said, "Seriously, I get what you're saying, though. He did borrow a lot of concepts from his dad's work. But if you just take it as a standalone novel, not as a prequel to The Killer Angels, you can't deny that it's really very well-written."

Jess' only response was to grab her by the hips and pull her into a passionate kiss right there in the street. Rory lost her mind for awhile as he pulled her close and ravaged her mouth, kissing her fiercely. It was only when they heard Babette wolf-whistling at them from across the street that he pulled away from her, leaving her breathless in his arms. He rested his forehead gently against hers and she could see his smile. "Have I ever told you I think you're pretty damn wonderful?" he said.

"No, but it's good to know," she told him cheekily, but the effect was spoiled somewhat by the fact that she was still trying to catch her breath.

The smile turned to a smirk, and he gave her a quick kiss on the lips before wrapping his arm around her waist and guiding her off in the direction of the town square. "Come on, Miss Gilmore, let's get you your book..."


End file.
